In Jesus God broke into the world to turn the world upside down but he did it in a subversive, topsy turvy way. He did it, not by coming in a way that the world viewed as powerful and glorious, but by means of a carpenter’s son, from a nowhere town, who preached meekness over might, and suffering, service, and submission over status. In the ultimate demonstration of the backward way that God brought about His purposes, He had this Jesus die in one of the most humiliating and shameful ways possible. Though He would afterward raise Him from the dead, the lesson that shame comes before splendor would have been a tough pill to swallow in a culture that was obsessed with status and Sophistry (a form of philosophy that especially emphasized style). Jesus was shaking the foundations of culture and society.

All of this comes to head in Corinth, a city that in the days of Jesus and Paul was “more Greek than Rome and more Rome than Athens.” It was a cultural melting pot, with many different expressions of the sorts of value systems, Christianity and its Christ were beginning to subvert. Paul writes to Christians who were in many ways still encumbered with ideas inculcated by their culture. In order to live in line with their profession of following Christ, these Christians needed to climb down from their pillars of pride and divest themselves of status. Especially egregious for Paul was that they were taking a system that status shirking as its foundation and turning it into a system of status symbols. They divided over who had the most sophisticated teacher, who had attained a higher level of knowledge, and whose spiritual gift made them more spiritual.

In order to combat this partisan pride, Paul reminds them of several truths that I think will help us as we evaluate our work, identity, and calling both as individuals and as a community. First, he reminds them that the cross is antithetical to clawing and climbing the social ladder and that Christianity does not exist without the cross. If we could keep the cross in our forefront we would realize there is no place for self-promotion or looking down at others.

Second, he reminds them that the teachers they have rallied around are all merely servants, working toward the same goal. Part of Paul’s strategy in this is to point out the various seasons in the life of a church. Paul came to plant, Apollos came afterward to water. Churches go through cycles, needing something different in different seasons. Different is not necessarily better, though it may be better suited to a particular season. For myself, I am indebted and grateful for the work that brother Jim and brother Earl have done for the group here and I hope that I am building on that well. If we could better see the work done by our fellow brothers and sisters as contributing to our unified purpose of bringing glory to God and growing the community of His people rivalry would dissipate and effectiveness would increase.

This gets the third point and second metaphor Paul gives, that of God’s building or temple. The church at large, Christians of all time, everywhere, together make up the dwelling place for God. This is a great honor as well as a humbling reality. Each of us is merely one part of a much greater whole, thus we must not think too highly of ourselves. Having said that, however, what a great honor it is to be part of the building project that ultimately houses God! Thus, each of us will take great care for how we build upon it, which behooves us to climb down from our pride pillars and get to work.

Finally, Paul uses the metaphor of the body, each Christian being a different member or part. We all have a different role, but each is necessary. Without one part, the body is less than whole and complete and loses an important function. This reality should ground 1) my appreciation for my fellow members’ skills, efforts, and contributions 2) an understanding of my own function in the body and 3) my need to work in such a way to build up the body as a whole. No part works for its own ends or purposes to the detriment of the other (save the guy who only works his biceps at the gym, who is topsy turvy in another way. Don’t be that guy.)

Let us keep the cross ever before us, realize that we and the teachers we follow are all servants together, stones in God’s great building project for His glory, and members of the same body, diverse and necessary to the function of the whole.

Yesterday we considered the parable of the two sons (Matthew 21:28-32) which reminds us that God prioritizes our production over our position, our past, and our promises. Because God values fruit-bearing above all else, we must endeavor to bear fruit in our lives. This was the biblical way of talking about living a changed life (Isa. 5:1-7; Matt. 3:1-10; Gal. 5:16-26) which had social, moral, and theological consequences.

As we considered this parable we drew out the following principles of production. If we are going to be productive:

1) We must stop being okay with today. Fruit-bearing is necessarily a forward-looking process and thus, we are not contented with today’s position but are preparing to head in tomorrow’s direction.

2) We must cut off our pasts to produce in the present. Like the vine that carries all the cumbersome weight of past growth, our past can be a hindrance to production (more on this below).

3) The final production principle we discussed was that we must shut our mouths and open our hands. God is not pleased with our pretense or our empty promises. He doesn’t want an outward show of compliance, nor does He care for us exhibiting the surface level marks of productivity. We must stop talking about it and be about it. We must stop promising God, others, and perhaps most of all ourselves that we will change and start taking steps toward growth.

If we apply these three principles we will begin to produce the kind of fruit God is wanting in our lives.

Let us return to our 2nd principle in order to stretch the point a little bit further. We must cut off our pasts if we are going to be productive at present. Our pasts can either be a prison from which we feel we can’t escape, as could have been the case with the tax collectors and prostitutes that Jesus commends, or a pedestal as was the case with many of the religious leaders to whom Jesus was speaking. They relied on their pedigree and felt as if that put them in a position that was pleasing to God (Matt. 3:7-10). And so, some pruning of our past life is necessary. But once cut off, is our past completely useless? Can it help us to grow at all? I believe it can. If we can continue stretching the vineyard metaphor let’s think about those dead branches that we cut off. They are no longer weighing down our fruit-bearing branches or leeching necessary nutrients. This is good but they can help us further if we compost them, add them to the soil and allow them to function in a new way. In this way, our past can fuel our growth by:

1) giving us the necessary motivation to change. We are not that person anymore and don’t ever want to be that person ever again.

2) reminding us of how far we’ve come, or perhaps better how far God, the master gardener, has brought us.

3) steering us away from the unproductive paths in which we once walked and guiding us to new ones in the future (the composting metaphor probably starts to really break down at this point but you get my point, the past can still be useful when rightfully applied!)

Let us prune our past so that we might use our pasts in order to be more productive for the Father!

The resurrection of Jesus changes... everything. It is the climax to the great drama of the Bible and key to unlocking what God has been up to in the world. It was not plan B, C, or Z in God’s story, it has been plan A all along. Everything started with a good creation, where God blessed man and purposed to dwell with man forever in the garden. But God in His infinite wisdom and foreknowledge knew that the story would run amuck quickly and prepared beforehand to set right what had been made wrong. It is in the resurrection of Jesus that God overcomes the story of division, disobedience, depravity, and death with the story of light, of love and of life. In the resurrection the path has been paved for all to be reconciled back to God, sin has been dealt with as have the powers and forces that drive us toward disobedience and depravity. The fatal blow has been delivered to death, and it will be finally defeated in the end as we all receive resurrected bodies crafted and created by the creator to live immortal eternal with our God. Not only this but creation itself (often expressed in terms of the heaven(s) and earth) finally sees the end to corruption and decay and looks forward to its own restoration that will be analogous to that of our bodies in the new heavens and new earth. Thus the theological, relational, spiritual, personal, ecological, and eschatological (referring to what happens in the end and thus our hope) consequences of the fall are dealt with in the resurrection. The first Adam brought the story of death and darkness to the old creation, the new Adam (Jesus) introduces the story of light and life to the new creation. As has been hinted at, however, Jesus' resurrection is just the beginning. He is the firstfruits of the harvest and His resurrection anticipates a much greater harvest to come. All of this should give us great hope about our future, great consolation about past and great purpose for our present. Here are three practical takeaways of all of this for our present: 

1. Our future hope of the glory to come should cause us to reinterpret our present suffering. Rom. 8:18 and 2 Cor. 4:17 both look at the present suffering in light of the future hope, 2 Cor. 5 goes on to describe this hope as being clothed with a more permanent building versus the tent (body) that we currently have. Whatever pain, shame, affliction, etc. we face in this body is light and infinitesimal when seen side by side with our hope for a future resurrected body. We may groan now, but it will all be worth it in the end.
2. This leads to the second point. What we do in our body now matters and affects our future hope. Part of the significance of the resurrection is that Jesus is able to sit as judge over all things and this we will stand before Him in judgment for what we have done in our current body (2 Cor. 5:10). While this might seem daunting, judgment has always been something that God’s people should hasten because it means that He is setting right what is wrong in the world and vindicating His people. It is interesting that those who are pictured as currently dwelling before God in heaven in a disembodied state are discontent (Rev. 6:9-11). Isn’t this what Christians are supposed to look forward to? Our spirits floating before the throne/altar of God for eternity? This is the popular view of Heaven/the afterlife, but even in context, it is seen to incomplete, inadequate, not final. What’s left out of this picture and thus what is longed for by these individuals in Rev. 6 is vindication and victory, judgment, and justice. This is what the resurrection of Jesus promises and the resurrection of everyone provides, the righteous to the resurrection of life and the wicked to eternal torment. The other side of all of this is that because what we do in the body matters and judgment is coming is that our labor is not in vain (1 Cor. 15:58) our good works that we have done in the body will be recognized and not burned up (1 Cor. 3:12-15) and we will receive commendation/reward from God (1 Cor. 4:5). What we do here matters and so we make it our aim to do good and please God always. 
3. Finally, Jesus’ resurrection means that the forces which once had power over us, have that authority no longer (Eph. 2:1-6). Paul prayed that the Ephesians might recognize that the power at work in them is the same power by which Jesus overcame the grave and no presides over the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places (Eph. 1:19-21). Indeed through this power, we are able to gain victory over these forces (Eph. 6:10-18). Rev. 12:1-17 gives us a beautifully composed mental image of this victory. Jesus has been raised, Satan has been cast down, and the saints are victorious even in death, precisely because death is not the end. 

What is the first thing you want to know when you hear about a new diet or exercise program? Not what the daily regimen looks like. Not what the daily caloric goals are or what macronutrient goals you should be hitting. The first thing you want to know is does it.... work? And so you look at the before and after photos, you listen to testimonials, and if a friend or acquaintance told you about it you ask them about their personal experience and how effective this has been in their life.

This is instructive for the process of sharing the Gospel. When we share the Gospel with people the first thing they want to know is does it work? How effective is it? What changes will it produce for the better? Why do I need this? We must start with why and often times that “why” starts not with some deep dive in doctrinal discussions, or some esoteric theological conversation but with what God has begun to do in me (there is a time and place for those other conversations, but the beginning is usually not it). Paul says, “the Gospel is the power to salvation” (Rom. 1:16), do we present it as such? The power to deliver someone from the domain of Satan and bring them into the kingdom of light. The power causes the blind to see. The power to raise from death to life. People, especially those who we know and already have a relationship with, want to know how has that power been at work in us.

As we studied Sunday morning when looking at the story of the man liberated from Legion, Jesus brings about powerful and demonstrable change. This man was brought from the land of the dead to that of the living, from lunacy to soundness of mind, from destructive raging to serene sitting. Likewise, if we are going to demonstrate the power of the Gospel, that power must evident in our lives. Like the formerly demon-possessed man, we must “sit at Jesus feet” that is we must learn from him and become his disciple. We must “change our clothes” that is - put on new habits and a new lifestyle. Finally, we must “tell our story” or proclaim all God has done for us. We all have been plagued by certain evil forces in our lives, perhaps not in the same way as this man, but we have been or are in the process of being liberated no less. Let us proclaim what God has done in us.

For this, we need 1) an honest introspection of our past. 2) A grateful appreciation of where God has brought us at present. 3) And a hopeful appreciation about what heights He will lead us to in the future.

What are you “demons?” Did you/do you struggle with greed, pride, discontent, lust, envy, rivalry, gossip, slander, anger, depression, anxiety, homosexual tendencies, promiscuity, drunkenness, or any such thing? Are you, by God’s strength, doing better with these things? Has He made you more loving, less prideful, more pure, less profane? More peaceable, more pleasant? How have you grown? People want to know that, nay, people need to know that.

Find a way, even in the present situation, to share your story. Go to your front yard and get to know your neighbor and talk about how your life is being transformed by Christ. Call up an old friend, or a family member that knew you in a former life, catch up, let them know what’s changed and why. Feeling brave enough to be really vulnerable. Share your story on social media. You never know who might relate, who might feel that they’re the only ones struggling with those demons. Who might hear (read) your story, and think “I’ve got to tell them mine.”

In all of this, our focus should be on God not on self. This is what He has done! These changes are only possible because of Him. Let us not attribute the power in our lives to our intellect, skill, or circumstances apart from God. This is not an exercise of bragging in self, but of boasting in God! Let us tell our story, or perhaps better put, His story in us!

God created us in His image and after His likeness.

What does that mean? Nowhere are we given an explicit definition of what it means to be made in the image of God.

The language “create man in our image and in our likeness” suggests that we share some affinity with God, that is we resemble God in some way. Because we lack an explicit definition of this, either in Genesis 1 or elsewhere, students of the Bible are left to infer what this might mean from the implications of the text. The inferences that have been drawn over the years range from the idea that we bear some physical resemblance to God, to the idea that we were created perfectly righteous, to the idea that we are embodied spirit beings, to the idea that we are rational beings and the list goes on. Several of these things are true (though the claim that we resemble God physically is dubious) and it's unlikely that the implication of being made in the image of God can be exhausted by any one of these things by itself. In Genesis 1 we see God as the Divine creator with capacities for intelligence, creativity, and relationship who creates good things in order to bring a blessing to His creation.

The word image suggests that not only do we resemble God but that we are made to represent God. That is what an image was, a representation. For example, Nebuchadnezzar had an image created to represent his power and glory (Dan. 3). Likewise, idols are often referred to as images (see for example 2 Chron. 23:17; Amos  5:26). It is not that ancient pagans were so primitive that they thought the pieces of wood and stone were actually gods, but that they represented the gods and they were a place where they could pray, worship, and confer with the gods. How pagans that of their idols, Israel thought of their tabernacle/temple and ark of the covenant. It was the place where God is represented. Part of the reason why God did not want Israel to make images of Him is that He had already made an image to represent Him. Us! Think about that, we are the “place” where God is represented. We bear His name and were created for His glory (Isa. 43:7). It is no surprise then that the New Testament applies temple imagery to Christians both individually and collectively. We are redeemed and restored to be the “place” where God is represented and glorified.

Perhaps the most concrete implication we can draw from the context of Genesis 1 about being made in the image of God is that we were endowed with authority. We are made to rule with the Divine Creator. We have been given dominion and stewardship over this earth and having an affinity with God, and being agents/representatives of Him, we ought to use our authority for His glory (see also Psa. 8). Like God, we exercise our capacities and capabilities of intelligence, creativity, etc. to continue to care for, cultivate, and capitalize on the resources that He’s given us to be a blessing to others. For Adam and Eve, their task was gardening (Gen. 2:15). In our vocations, we are to employ our faculties and capabilities to do good, but this idea extends far beyond the workplace. We are created as God’s workmanship, created for good works and this applies to all of life (Eph. 2:10). We each have different capabilities and capacities, but we are all created in or as God’s image. It is our divinely appointed task to glorify God and bless others. Because of this, it is difficult to prescribe specific tasks to each individual. However, some questions might help each of us figure out how we can uniquely image God.

What are my skills and abilities that I can employ to be a blessing to others?

How has my training, background, experience, etc. equipped me to make a difference in someone else’s life?

What knowledge has God blessed me with that I can pass on to others?

What resources has God given me that I can utilize and share to His glory?