How We Change: Beholding Christ (2 Cor. 3:14-4:6)
Intro
When Stanley Jones, a missionary, met with Mahatma Gandhi he asked him:
Mr. Gandhi, though you quote the words of Christ often, why is that you appear to so adamantly reject becoming his follower?
Gandhi replied:
Oh, I don't reject Christ. I love Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike Christ.
At another time,
He asked Gandhi how to naturalize Christianity into India. Gandhi replied in part:
I would suggest first of all that all of you Christians, missionaries and all begin to live more like Jesus Christ.
Now, there is some debate about the historicity of these quotes, but I think the reason why they are so popular is that it strikes a nerve with many of us. Many of us have felt the blatant hypocrisy we see in Christians who worship and preach about Christ and look little like him.
And if we are honest, we have seen that hypocrisy in ourselves.
There is a great chasm between our savior and us.
How do we become like him when we are so far off?
Just try harder to be like Him?
No biggie, just try to be perfect.
We cannot become more like just by trying harder. We've all gone down that path and its a dead end.
If we are so deformed and malformed into the image of the world, how do we get back what was lost? How is it that so many Christians don't look like Christ.
What I'm going to argue is that to be transformed into the likeness of Christ, requires having a regular encounter with seeing God with the eyes of your heart.
MPS- Organize your whole life around beholding God, while helping others do the same.
2 Cor 3: Beholding Him
But before we can behold Christ in all of his glory, we must first be a Christian. Let’s look at 2 Cor 3:14-16.
Unveiled Face: You Must be Born Again
Try to note all the difference characteristics of those who are not Christians.
› There’s a lot in these coming passages and we won’t be able to get in the weeds. If you have questions, please bring this up to others and search the scriptures with them.
2 Corinthians 3:14–16 ESV
14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. 15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
Minds are hardened.
Veil is over their hearts.
2 Corinthians 4:3–4 ESV
3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
The evil one has blinded their minds, and the beauty and worth of the gospel and Jesus is veiled to them.
So even if they hear the good news, its not good to them.
So how can we have any chance to see the glory of Christ?
How does any blind person have any chance to see?
God has to give sight.
2 Corinthians 4:6 ESV
6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
And this is what has happened behind the scenes for every person who truly sees Jesus as he is.
And if you have a sense that your sight of Christ is blinded. You want him, but you feel a huge wall. We'd love to pray with you.
I share that to say, that if you want to become like Jesus, you must have the veil removed, so you can see him and his gospel and all his beauty. Without this step, its impossible to reformed in the image of Christ in a significant way.
Empowered Transformation
2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV
18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
We will get to the first part of v. 18, but I want us to look at the second half first, which is the result.
For those who, behold in Christ, they will be transformed to look like him.
This verb for transformed, is the word metamorphoumetha.
What does that sound like?
Metamorphosis!
Just like a caterpillar can change into a beautiful butterfly.
This is the kind of transformation possible….Unrecognizable kind of change!
Remember, last week, we continued seeing that all of us are born in the image of Adam and deformed from the image of God. so the process of discipleship is increasingly becoming reformed into the image of Jesus.
And if we want to measure our maturity, we measure it according to how much we are like Jesus.
How can looking at the glory of Lord change us like this?
Look at that word, FOR in our passage.
For is because.
For is what makes things possible.
FOR, This comes from the Spirit!
The Holy Spirit is what makes it possible to see Christ and then become transformed to become like him!
This is what the Spirit does with all spiritual disciplines.
Other theologians have called it means of grace, others, habits of grace, the most popular name is spiritual disciplines.
But what all of these are getting at is that you can't actually, change yourself.
But what you can do is set yourself up in the streams of grace that God has promised to meet his people, over time, as you position yourself with the right environment in the right habits, the Holy Spirit sets it on fire and brings forth transformation.
And the primary habit we will focus on this morning is that of daily beholding, which I would argue is the most important one.
What is Beholding?
What does it mean to behold?
Not just to notice or see.
Imagine if I say, “I was in Joanna’s classes for a few semesters but when I went on a study trip to Israel, and got to spend lots of time with her, it was the first time I actually truly beheld her.
Beholding is seeing in a more fully.
For the Christian, they don't just know about Christ. Got a shown a light inside of their dark heart, so that they can see the worth of Jesus. Why is it that some of our dearest family members and friends have heard the same gospel as us and it does nothing for them. Jesus just seems like some guy who may have lived and was nice and wise.
But for us who are saved, light has shown in our hearts, the veil has been lifted and we see him, not perfectly, but truly in his glory.
But this is not just a one time occurrence.
It is an ongoing reality. The Christian life, is a life of beholding Christ in increasing measures.
How do we Behold: The Word
How do we behold him when he’s not hear physically yet?
One day, we will see him face to face, but until that day, how do we see him?
We must see Christ, not with our physical eyes, but our spiritual ones, just like Ephesians 1 & 3 talks about.
If you wan to learn more about that, look at my sermon on the Love of God on Ephesians 3, preached last February.
Until Christ comes back in all of his glory,
Beholding comes through the word of God.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God!
So you won’t behold him with your Bible closed.
But this is no ordinary Bible reading we’re talking about….
This may be the most important point I want to make this morning.
If you have been a Christian for any number of years, you have tried to spend time with God. Many of you regularly have found this one of the most frustrating areas of your life. You want it to be great, but it's not. A
and perhaps you feel a great sense of shame and discouragement about it.
But perhaps, the issue is that our mindset about it is off.
Yes, I want you to spend time with your Bible and pray.
But I want the focus to be on beholding God. Getting your heart happy in God. Delighting in the great promises Christ has purchased for you.
So you're not merely reading for content or information, although that is essential, but the reading is hyper focused, in
helping your soul realize how much God loves you. Helping your heart tremble at his holiness.
Helping you grasp all that he has accomplished for you through the gospel.
Helping you see him in all of his glory.
Beholding the Lord also includes helping yourself receive what he says about you.
Growing in your peace and acceptance of his great promises for you.
That simple mindset shift changes everything.
“The first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day is to have my soul happy in the Lord.” - George Muller
The Christian life is truly a fight for sight.
Yes, when you become a Christian, you go from being blind to having sight. But the sight is still dim.
1 Corinthians 13:12 ESV
12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
Read the old and New Testament. Looking for God‘s character. After you establish the context and the main point of the author, let the primary cry of your heart be,
“show me your glory!”
Our whole life, we will continue to go back to the Text and realize that God is far greater than we know. Far more merciful. Far more just than we know.
As I was reading Ezekiel yesterday I was seeing he’s far more wrathful than I know.
“The Christian life, from one angle, is the long journey of letting our natural assumption about who God is, over many decades, fall away, being slowly replaced with God's own insistence on who he is. This is hard work.
The fall in Genesis 3 not only sent us into condemnation and exile. The fall also entrenched in our minds dark thoughts of God, thoughts that are only dug out over multiple exposures to the gospel over many years.” -Dane Ortlund, Deeper
Last week, we also looked at different attributes and actions of Jesus's life that all flow from his love. Jesus loved with such intensity that it led him to die for others, serve others, speak boldly against injustice, bless little children, ate and drank with tax collectors and prostitutes, touched those that no one would touch, and so much more.
And all of us here will gravitate towards certain attributes and be repelled by others. And for us to continue our discipleship to Jesus, is that we embrace the whole of who Jesus is.
If you’re selfish and struggle with entitlement you’re not known as a servant
Behold Christ washing feet like a slave
Or you are prone to harshness and you see the tenderness of Christ calling an outcast woman, “Daughter.”
So let your daily reading of the Word, renew your view of what God is truly like and steadily become like him.
Speaking of steadily…
One Degree of Glory (Slow Change)
We have been shaped by the worlds values for decades, immersing ourselves under the influence of the world, drinking in it’s Kool-Aid and then we think because we have tried to become more like Christ for a few months, then we get frustrated?
It’s like the person who has neglected diet and exercise for their whole life and then they get mad they can’t run a marathon after a week of training.
What makes it even worse, is that we continue to load up influences from the world and then we are frustrated that we are so worldly ?
Like trying to put out a fire while simultaneously feeding it with gas.
I don’t know why I am so anxious…
I only spend 4 hours a day on social media and the news. Prayer doesn’t work!
In an age where everything is fast convenient where we are impatient to even get a package in two days, we can transpose that value onto our transformation with Jesus. We think it will come fast, and when it doesn’t we can get discouraged.
Like it doesn’t, “work.”
› Look at our passage again,
2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV
18 are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.
Note that our text says that we will become like Christ from one degree of glory to the next.
Do you know what this is?
Its a protractor and I think I used it in school. Not sure why, which is how I felt about most things in Math class, but I do know you can measure degrees.
If you move 1°, and walk away, the difference is imperceptible.
But what if you move an object 1° every day for a month, then, you can see a significant change.
What if you changed 1° every day for six months? That would be 180°.
Which would be a complete turnaround.
Your life makes a complete 180.
My point is overtime, as we behold God, daily, will become like him. Day by day it may seem like you're the same, but if you keep showing up, you will be a completely different person over the course of many years.
So show up, daily, and let the Spirit work. You can’t change yourself or control your growth. But just keep beholding him, and he will do a powerful work in and through you!
Because we become what we behold.
Doing this well, is trained, its not intuitive. This is a call for us to humbly ask others who are ahead of us on how to do this well.
Practical Tips
Control your Influences
Imagine trying to connect deeply with a loved one, but you are doing it in the middle of a busy intersection. though you could connect some, it will be deeply strained. and likely caused you to feel like time with that person is not worth it. It's boring. It's frustrating. It's not meaningful.
But the problem is not the person, but the place. The environment. The time.
This is the problem, so many of us have. We get the spurts of motivation to spend quality time with God, but because we do not put careful work in setting ourselves up for success, our time with God is deeply frustrating.
You can't directly change yourself. But what you can do, is carefully organize your life to prioritize influences that point you to Jesus and minimize, as much as possible, influences that pull you away from Christ.
But to be able to be in a position to regularly encounter God, we need to set ourselves up with habits and an environment so that we can meet with him.
What you look at when you first wake? What about before you go to bed?
Do you have a thoughtful and tested strategy for your phone or media?
Do you have a regular sabbath, as well as other regular rhythms of your life where you can pause, not work, and slow down enough to hear the voice of God?
Do you have healthy habits of sleep where you were going to bed at a healthy time so that you can have the energy to be with God in the morning?
Or even if you don't have time with God in the morning, do you get enough rest, healthy diet and exercise to where you can energy when you’re with God?
Do you have healthy boundaries with work, so you can fully and wholeheartedly work when you should be working and also be off when you should be off?
There is so much more to say on this topic and how to do it.
Listen, I haven’t mastered each of these elements. It takes many years to do all of these well and require so much wisdom and discipline on what to say no to in order to give your best yeses to God. And things can shift dramatically season by season.
So again, we need community to help us do this well. Let those who have been doing this for decades catch you up.
Organize your Life around Beholding Him
Instead of scheduling time with God, schedule your life around time with God.
Does you see how different that is?
Here’s one more…
Spend one hour a day with the Lord. I know that sounds a lot, but it really shouldn’t be. Collectively between having time with him in the morning sometime in the middle of the day and before you go to bed, that’s not that much .
I like starting off with this hour mark, because it is so jarring for most. Many of us grew up seeing books like the one minute devotions book.
The mindset is to ease yourself in to having time with God, and then it will grow, and you will want more. But I have not seen this to be the case for almost anyone.
Because when you approach God with that mindset, of let me try you out and give you a minute of my day, you start yourself off with a terrible foundation that will collapse. You start yourself off giving God your crumbs.
Nobody would ever say that to an aspiring Olympian. Just spend one minute a day of exercise to ease your way in. Or for someone who wants to have a closer relationship with your spouse, just spend a minute a day with them. It’s the wrong foundation doomed to fail.
Of course there will be some seasons this is not possible, having a newborn, unusual illness, there’s grace!
Listen, there is no legalism here. You are not more loved by God if you spend an hour or more a day.
Or less if you spend less.
But you will likely be less in tune with his love that always there.
These are just guidelines on how to have a flourishing and transforming relationship with God.
It is healthy for couples to go on regular dates.
If you miss a date, you won’t get a divorce. You didn’t fail because you couldn’t fit in a date.
Perhaps it’s just a season.
But will it affect your relationship? Yes.
At some level, you may feel a little less connected, Miss each other, a little bit more and understanding where you’re coming from, could get in a little bit more tension or passive aggressiveness or fights even.
But it’s OK.
But you shouldn’t be OK with it long-term. And you should fight for quality face-to-face time with them.
Of course, Paul calls us to pray without ceasing. So you were going to carry this conversation with God throughout the day. The more you mature, the more you are able to, as brother Lawrence famously said, “practice the presence of God,” whether you are a washing dishes or at work or play.
But for you to be able to get to this state, you need to have unhurried, quality time with him. It’s not either or but both and.
› Next week we will talk more about how we can’t grow without community.
› And so much of it is just helping others prioritize beholding God everyday.
Back to the Beginning
What Gandhi struggled with so much is seeing so many people proclaim about a glorious Christ, and yet look nothing like him.
I think one of the answers why this is so common, this so regularly behold him.
If we become what we behold, then many Christians are not spending quality time gazing upon him. And they look little like him.
Gaze like Moses
So to make things as simple as possible, our passage in Chapter 3, speaks about Moses. And remember how Moses went into the tent of meeting
Exodus 33:10–11 ESV
10 And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. 11 Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.
And when he would leave this sacred space, his face would shine brightly.
What Paul is showing us is that we can have our own kind of daily meeting with God, but a little different.
Every day, go to your designated place, bear your soul before the Lord, without any veils or masks. Show up as your real self. Pouring out all of your sorrows, fears, anger, worries, doubts, and guilt.
And then let him remind you of how much he loves you. That his grace is greater than the depths of your darkness. Bathe your heart in the gospel afresh.
Then, open up the Bible and pour over it with a heart to see his glory.
And by the spirit, fight to see him with the eyes of your heart.
Let him remind you of the great promises he has stored for you. L
et him root you deeply in your identity in Christ. Like you are now an adopted beloved Child of God.
Let him fill you with hope you that He will come back soon and you'll see him face-to-face and he will wipe away every tear from your eyes.
let him fill your heart with fresh purpose and why he has you still on earth to become like Jesus and help others do the same.
Every day, fight to gaze upon his beauty.
And then go imitate what you behold.
And then, as you go about your day, not always instantaneously, but overtime, you will look more more like the one you behold.
So what if we organize our whole life around beholding the Lord and as a result, we would become like Jesus?
Imagine what it would be like if over a hundred people this week from our church community spent time gazing on Christ this week?
What would happen in our marriages?
Our parenting?
Our friendships?
Our workplaces and neighborhoods and school?
If we want to see the glory of the Lord spread throughout the whole world, we start here.
Band come up,
____
Conversation questions with Jesus:
Jesus, what are you saying to me through this word?
____, I am saying…
Jesus, what do you want me to do?
____, I want you to…
Announcements & Benediction
Prayer time