Betrothed To Christ
Part
2
By Al Buchanan
We started the countdown to Passover some weeks ago. Passover will be five weeks from tomorrow evening. We are that close now. The days are ticking off. The clock continues to tick, and the time and the days keep passing by. We have just five weeks from tomorrow evening to the Passover for 2004!
The last time I spoke here, the sermon was titled BETROTHED TO CHRIST. I said that it should be Part 1 because there no doubt would be a second. Today will be Part 2. As you know, for several weeks now we have been attempting to focus our attention on the need to prepare for the Passover. This sermon will continue in that attempt.
Clearly, the plan of God—the great plan that God has worked out for man—involves the calling of the firstfruits. And we have been emphasizing how the firstfruits have been called to a very special role.
If we are part of the firstfruits and indeed are among those who have been called as the firstfruits, we will have an opportunity to enter into God’s great Family as the wife of Jesus the Christ. As we mentioned earlier, it is probably a good idea if we just stop and ponder and let that roll around in our minds just a little bit as to what an incredible statement that is. We can say those words so easily, but what it entails is absolutely mind-boggling.
As we have been pointing out, in order for the firstfruits to become Jesus Christ’s wife, we will have to go through a change—an incredible change. The apostle Paul was inspired to write about that in I Corinthians 15, and we mentioned it last time. This change involves the firstfruits becoming like Jesus Christ. An incredible change in our makeup, in our whole composition, has to take place because we will actually become like Him.
John mentioned that in I John
3:1-3, but I don’t want to turn there right now. I do want to turn to a
scripture that we haven’t turned to yet. I’d like to turn to Ephesians 1, and
note what the apostle Paul wrote here to the church at
I pointed out before that I feel like this first chapter of Ephesians is one of the very important chapters in the Bible. Not that they aren’t all important. They all are. Every word in this Book is important. But this particular chapter is packed full of some very, very important information for us.
Ephesians
1:1-3 Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in
I think, if we do ponder and think about it and if it does sink in—and, as we have mentioned earlier, if we can get our minds around ‘who we are’ and ‘what we have been called to’—that third verse will have great meaning to us. And we can include ourselves in this category that is mentioned here for it describes us to the letter.
Ephesians 1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4) just as He chose us in Him [in Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.
This is a brief description of the condition of the firstfruits after the change has taken place—after we are changed. Then we can stand before Him, without blame, holy, and in love. Being able for the first time to fully experience what agape is. We can have a glimpse into it now. We can experience it to a certain level now, and we are to do that—through God’s Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, Jesus Christ commands us to love one another as He loved us; that is agape. But the fullness of it will begin to be experienced at this time, when we stand before Him after the change comes. After it comes, then we will be able to experience this, standing before Him holy and without blame and in love.
Ephesians 1:5 Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will.
The firstfruits were predestined to become God’s children. Paul uses the word “adoption” here, and he uses it for a particular reason. We have talked about this before. We become His children through an adoption process because we were not His children. We become His children like the adoption process legally brings about. In other words, a child who is not the child of a given couple can legally become the couple’s child through the adoption process. However, as we explained before, the adoption process does not make that child literally your child. Legally, yes—having every right of their child, yet not child by blood at all.
In this case, although we were not children, yet through an adoption process we become children. We literally become His children. It is a miracle. It is a miracle that we cannot perform in the human flesh, in our adoption process; but He can, and He has.
Ephesians 1:5 Having predestined us [It was predetermined that this was going to happen.] to adoption as sons [as children] by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will.
And it is made possible through the sacrifice that He made, the incredible sacrifice that He gave, enabling this great plan to proceed to where we are now. It would not be able to proceed even to the point where we are right now without this sacrifice; and it certainly wouldn’t be able to proceed to the point of the firstfruits being able to be holy and without blame, standing before Jesus Christ, without it. Without that sacrifice being applied, that would be impossible.
We are the firstfruits. We are the first to enter into the Family of God—the first having an opportunity to become His fully born children. I am going to talk about something today that, if we let this get totally out of hand in our thinking, can actually cause us a problem. That is, that we are so special. And we are! We are, brethren; and we must understand that. But yet that ought to bring about humility in us—not the opposite; and we need to be careful that is the case. That is, as a result of this, that we don’t begin to think more of ourselves than we ought to. This whole thing is somewhat of, we might say, a two-edged sword. Again, we are going to talk more about this as we move forward today. But we are the firstfruits—the first to have an opportunity to enter the Family of God.
If you remember, we talked about how Jesus Christ is the firstborn among many brethren. He is the firstborn. And we talked about then, if you remember, that a firstborn is not a “first born” unless there are others who are born also. In other words, I used the example of our family. Steve is our firstborn. He wouldn’t be our firstborn if there weren’t other children. He would be our only child if that were the case. “First” demands a second, at least (if not more). The “first” fruits demand that there will be more.
If we are firstfruits to enter into the Family of God, there will be more. According to God’s plan, He predetermined and decided that there would be those entering the Family first—to become His Son’s wife. Once that position is filled, then the plan can continue; and there will be others. This great plan involves two harvests—an early harvest and a late harvest. We are privileged and honored to be part of the first harvest.
We have been talking about the role of the wife, the role that we will be able to fill. And in that, we have experienced things that even Christ could not have experienced—because He couldn’t cross that line of sin, which we have. We have done it. We have been there. And we have experienced the mercy of God on our behalf personally. Jesus Christ suffered incredibly, but He suffered for your sins and for mine. He suffered as a result of your sins and mine. He didn’t suffer as the result of His own.
But we have been there, and we have done that; we have had God’s mercy extended to us—in that we can have those sins forgiven, and we can have a relationship with Him. We can relate that to others. We will be able to fill a role in the process of the fall harvest, in other words. It’s an incredible opportunity that we have been called to, brethren. And I hope that we can at least get a glimpse into that.
Ephesians 1:5-6 Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, 6) to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
The word “Beloved” is agapeo in the Greek. Again, we will be able to experience agape. We will also be able to experience agapeo, which is sharing agape. We are able to experience it at one level now, but then we will at its fullness. At this time, when this occurs, we will begin to experience our destiny. We recently talked about our awesome destiny. In order for us to stand before Jesus Christ holy and without blame and stand there in love, this has to happen:
Philippians 3:20-21 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21) who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
Once this occurs, this will complete a work that began with our spiritual begettal. We know that scripture there in Philippians 1:6. I don’t have to go back and read that. I know you all know how Paul was confident that the work God has begun in us would be brought to completion at the return of Jesus Christ. That is what we are reading about here in Philippians 3:20-21. This begettal we talked about last time, two weeks ago.
As we talked about, at that time we also entered into a betrothal contract with Jesus
Christ. It was at that time—when the work that God began in us (at our
begettal, at our baptism)—at that same time we were betrothed to Christ (or
espoused, as the King James Version has it). That is when it occurred, at that
time. We entered into this contractual arrangement. Let’s go quickly over to II
Corinthians 11, and read again there where Paul mentions this about the
brethren there in
II Corinthians 11:1-2 Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly—and indeed you do bear with me. For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
So we pointed out how this word “betrothed” (or “espoused” in the King James) means to join, to fit together. And we pointed out how it also involves the adjustments so that it can fit together. We are talking about human beings here, and we are talking about the betrothal between a man and a woman. We are talking about them entering into a relationship in which, the way it is set up, the bride adjusts so that she can fitly join with the husband. And, as I pointed out before, the reason why the customs were set up as they were within the Jewish community is because it was a type of the church preparing to be the Bride of Christ. The customs within the Jewish community were established for that reason. It “types” the church adjusting to become the wife of Jesus Christ, so that it can mesh—so it can join together—the two correctly.
There is a difference between our custom and theirs in one major way. I think we need to understand this, so I will mention it here at this point. When two individuals are married in this country, they almost always go through an engagement period. It can last for days. It can last for months or even years. And then finally a marriage ceremony is conducted, and it is at that time that the legalities of the process take place. In other words, the couple is not legally bound to one another until the marriage ceremony.
But, according to the Jewish customs, it was just the opposite. The legal part of the binding took place at the beginning of the espousal period. The marriage ceremony (or the marriage supper, as we know it is talked about in the Bible) occurred at the end; and at that time the marriage was merely consummated. But the legal part of it was entered into when the espousal began. And that is exactly what happens with us, brethren.
At our baptism, at our begettal, we enter into a contractual arrangement where we agree to certain things. We accept the payment of the dowry that Christ has made. You see, back in those Jewish customs, the husband-to-be paid a dowry. He paid a price—a monetary price. Jesus Christ didn’t make a monetary payment, but He gave His life. He gave the ultimate dowry. And, as a result of that, and in acceptance of that, we agreed to do certain things. We agreed to make certain changes.
Romans
As we read in Ephesians 1, it was predestined before the foundation of the world that this would occur. It was predestined that certain ones would be called to enter God’s Family as the wife of Jesus Christ. Those determined by God to be called for that role would have to conform to the image of the Son. “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.” This would involve the changing of our physical bodies, as we have already talked about. However, it would involve a process of change in this life as well.
In Part 1, we attempted to show that both the Father and Jesus Christ are very much involved in that process. That process of change, that process of adjustment, that we are to go through during the espousal process. Today, in Part 2, I want to focus more on our part in the process—the part that we have to play.
II Corinthians 13:5 Examine [prove, test] yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?---unless indeed you are disqualified [or you do not stand the test].
In the Jerusalem Bible that verse is rendered this way: Examine yourselves to make sure you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you acknowledge that Jesus Christ is really in you? By testing yourself, can you confirm, can you acknowledge, that Jesus Christ is really in you? If not, you have failed the test.
Last time, as you’ll remember, we spent quite a bit of time in John 6—where Jesus Christ instructed us there to consume Him. (To consume Him, to eat His flesh and drink His blood.) And we know that, obviously, that is not a literal thing. He went ahead and talked about how the words that He spoke were spirit and life. So, consuming Him involves consuming what He did, the way He taught us through example and word. We are to consume that. We are to internalize that. And another verse that we read last time was Galatians 4:19, where Paul wrote:
Galatians
So Christ is to be formed in us. We are to test ourselves to determine whether or not this is occurring. As we pointed out last time, this word formed means to form, to fashion. Originally this word was used of artists who shaped their material into an image. And so Christ is to be formed in us. What Jesus the Christ taught by example and word is to be formed in us. As His example and words take life in us, we are being conformed to His image in that sense. We are making adjustments to make us more compatible with Him. And, again, that is what the betrothal—that is what the espousal—is all about. The wife becomes more compatible with the husband-to-be.
Go with me to II Corinthians 3:18. This is a verse that is worded in such a way that it is a little difficult to glean the meaning of it. But let’s make an attempt at it. I’ll read it from the New King James; and then I’ll read it from the New International, which makes it a little bit clearer.
II Corinthians 3:18 (NKJ) But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
II Corinthians 3:18 (NIV) And we, who with unveiled faces all
reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with
ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
So it is a process. This transforming into the image of Jesus Christ is a process. We are told in II Corinthians 13:5 to test ourselves as to whether this is happening or not—whether or not the process is going on. And the responsibility is placed on us to do so. We are to look. We are to test. We are to examine as to whether it is taking place or not.
Today I would like for us to consider one area of Christ’s example and teaching. One area—the example that He set and the words that He said about this particular area of life. In doing so, we will have an opportunity to look at ourselves. To look down within ourselves and examine ourselves as to whether we are being transformed into His image in this particular area. This is a very basic area. It is very, very basic and foundational. However, it may be the most important area of all. It is something that is easier at the beginning than it is at the end. It is easier to get to this point of being like Christ at the beginning of the process than it is to maintain it at the end.
Matthew 16:13-17 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” 14) So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15) He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16) And Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17) Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”
So this is something where God had begun a process, even though Peter had not been begotten with the Spirit of God yet. Obviously, God’s Spirit was working with him; and God was leading him to certain understanding, and bringing him up to the point of that begettal. This is one thing that He revealed to him.
Matthew
If you remember, we went through this recently. Jesus Christ is building His church, and He is building His church as He Himself built mother Eve. He built her to perfectly fill the role of the first Adam’s wife. He is now building the church to perfectly fill the role of the last Adam’s wife.
Matthew 16:19-20 “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20) Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.
It wasn’t time then for others to know this. It was time for the disciples to, but not the public as a whole. So He gives them that command.
Matthew
I want to focus on that for just a moment. That is, this word “disciples” and what it means. I think most all of us understand and know the simplistic definition of disciple is just a learner, or a pupil, one who sits at the feet of another and learns lessons from (receives instruction from). Zodhiates points out that, in the New Testament, it means more than that. You glean this as you read through. It means more in the New Testament than a mere pupil or learner. We are talking specifically about Jesus Christ’s disciples. It is an adherent who accepts the instruction given to him and makes it his or her rule of conduct. In other words, it is not only involved in learning. It is involved in putting what you learn into action, or into practice, or making changes as a result of what you learn.
Now we understand, if that is a correct definition (which I believe it is), that this is a definition of someone betrothed to be someone’s husband. They learn. They receive instruction. And they make adjustments. They make corrections so that the fitting process can be. Again, harkening back to the customs, it was customary for the husband-to-be to communicate to the bride-to-be through a medium called “the friend of the bridegroom.” He would send instructions through this medium to the bride-to-be, and the bride-to-be then was to take those instructions and make the necessary adjustments.
During the espousal period, it was customary (when it was
adhered to perfectly) that the husband-to-be and the wife-to-be did not have
direct contact. The communication was through the medium of the friend of the
bridegroom. And that parallels, and it was set up that way again for the same express
purpose, what happens with the church and Christ. We do not have direct
face-to-face contact, but we receive instructions. Perhaps the friend of the
bridegroom would be God’s Spirit. At one time we thought it was the
Matthew 16:21 From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.
If you read another account of this, it says it a little
bit differently—that He would suffer, and be rejected by the leadership of the
Matthew
So He had to go through this. In order to be the Christ, there were certain things He had to go through.
Matthew 16:22-23 Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” 23) But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
Keep that in the back of your mind—His response to Peter, as to how this would have affected him. Notice that this was a person that Christ had rubbed elbows with for a while. He called them, “Friends,” in other places. And here was, in a sense, Peter offering an alternative to the plan—a much easier alternative in this case. Peter said, “No, no, no. You don’t need to go through all that. You must not go through that.” So Christ’s response was, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an offense (or a stumbling block) to Me.” To what? To accomplishing the plan. To accomplishing the role that He was to fill.
Matthew 16:23-24 “…for you are not mindful of the things of God, [Notice. Keep all of this in mind as we move forward.] but the things of men.” 24) Then Jesus said to His disciples [To those who would be betrothed.], “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself [I want to focus on that, but He goes on to say:], and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
“Let him deny himself.” I want to focus on that part of what He said for the remainder of the service. This word deny means to remove from one’s self, to refuse, to deny, to disown. It means to deny oneself, to refuse oneself, to give up oneself. To get a little bit of an idea of what this means, this is the same word that was used when Peter denied Christ three times. It is the same word. So it has the same meaning.
If you remember there, Peter saw what was taking place. He saw what was about to happen to this Friend of his—this One that he thought was going to be the king of Israel, at that time. He saw what they were beginning to do, and he became very alarmed at being one that was associated with Him; and he denied that he was. Remember? He denied that he was associated. In other words, he disassociated himself from Christ. He disconnected himself from Jesus Christ.
So this “denying the self” then has the meaning of disassociating ourselves from what we are, who we are. Disassociating ourselves from that. It involves sacrificing one’s self. It actually gets more involved even than that, as we’ll see as we move forward.
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
So, just taking it from what it says here, we are to present ourselves—or, our bodies—as a living sacrifice. We know and understand that we are not to give our lives in sacrifice literally as Jesus was required to do. We are not to make that kind of a sacrifice. However, we are to sacrifice something of ourselves. I repeat: We are to sacrifice something of ourselves.
Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
This sacrifice involves giving up our conformity to the world. I think that is pretty obvious; and that is not too hard to recognize or understand. We can read in I John 2:15-17 a very familiar scripture there, where it says we should not love this world and the things of this world. So that is pretty easily understood. This word conformed—where is says, “do not be conformed to the world”—means to conform oneself to another’s pattern. And I think we understand that we did that. We were conformed to another’s pattern. I want to move on now, and then we are going to come back to that point in a minute.
It says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed…” Do you know where we find the use of that word that is, the Greek word for “transformed”? Matthew 17, where Jesus Christ was transfigured. It’s the same Greek word. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” So we are to change into another form. Jesus Christ changed from physical to spiritual composition in vision in Matthew 17. It happened in vision. It happened in the minds of those individuals who witnessed it. But we are to go through a change that is similar to that.
Here [in Romans 12:2] the transforming occurs in the mind. It requires a renewing of the mind, and it involves conforming to the will of God. Notice that. “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Through following our own will, under the influence of Satan the devil, we conformed to another’s pattern. We conformed to Satan the devil’s pattern. Now, Christ verified that to those individuals He talked to there in John 8. Let’s go back and just read a few verses there. He was speaking to certain Jews, certain of those in the Jewish community.
John
And then He goes on to show that their father was Satan the devil. Go to Ephesians 2, and we’ll just confirm here—from Paul’s writings—that each and every one of us did this.
Ephesians 2:1-3 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2) in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3) among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh…
Notice that “the desires of the flesh” is involved in this. Satan uses the desires of our flesh to tempt us.
Ephesians 2:3-7 …fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. 4) But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5) even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6) and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus [It is worded as if it has already happened.], 7) that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
So we were all there. What he is saying here to these Jews [in John 8] applies to us.
John 8:38-43 “I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.” 39) They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. 40) But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. 41) You do the deeds of your father.” Then they said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.” 42) Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. 43) Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word.”
Neither could we, brethren. This is something that we really need to understand. I know we can say these words: We didn’t, of our own, come to understand the words in this Book. A miracle was performed! That is the only way that could happen. “Because you are not able…” We were not able to listen to these words. God began a work in us. He began a work, and He began to do a work. But He requires things of us as well.
John
Or, as the Companion Bible renders it, “you will to do.”
John
We are to sacrifice as well. We are to make a sacrifice. Jesus Christ made a sacrifice. We are to make a sacrifice. We are to sacrifice the following of our will. And we are to conform to doing God’s will. This has everything to do with us being conformed to the image of God’s Son. He set the example of making this sacrifice.
Let’s go to John 6. Notice what Jesus Christ said, leading up to Him talking about us needing to consume Him:
John
Jesus Christ came on a mission—to do the will of His Father. He specifically says here that He determined not to do His own will. He made the sacrifice of His own will. This is very much involved in denying the self.
Now, think about who He was as He walked on this earth as Jesus the Christ. I don’t know how much He understood in the beginning; but obviously, towards the end of His life, He knew who He was. And I think He knew all the way through. He remembered who He was, and He remembered His experience with His Father. He knew who He was. He knew how important He was.
We talked about earlier how that we have a very important role to play. He had a far more important role to play! He knew who He was. If any human being ever had the right, He had the right to depend upon His own will. He could trust it, couldn’t He? Apparently He didn’t think so. If anybody ever had the right (if that is the right way to put it) to be arrogant, He did.
John
He purposefully sacrificed His own will and determined that He would not trust in it. He said, “I can of Myself do nothing.” This sacrificing of His will resulted from His humility. Again, if there was any human being who has ever lived who had the right to be arrogant it would be Him. But He wasn’t. He said, “I can’t do anything of Myself.”
John
He recognized how much He depended on His Father. You know the story, in Matthew 26, of the last trial that He faced and how He clearly said that His will was different from the Father. He didn’t want to go through what He was about to go through. And He said, “Nevertheless, not My will but Yours be done.” He asked if the cup could be removed. So His will was for it to be removed.
Remember back to His reaction to Peter’s suggestion: “No, You can’t do this. You must not do this.” And He said, “Get behind Me, Satan.” He recognized where that was coming from. He said, “You mind the things of men, not the things of God.” Christ focused constantly on the plan, the purpose, the reason why He was here. He didn’t take His focus off of that.
Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet was without sin.
If He would have given in to the temptation, He would have failed as our Savior. Think of all the ways that we have been tempted. Think in your own life of all the ways that you have been tempted. Here, this is a blanket statement—saying that He was in all points tempted as we are. So He was clearly faced with situations where He was tempted to rely on His own will. That is, to do what He wanted to do. But He didn’t do it. So let’s notice His instruction to us:
Matthew
The one that does the Father’s will shall have an
opportunity to enter the
Matthew 12:46-50 While He was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers stood outside [This was His physical mother and His physical brothers.], seeking to speak with Him. 47) Then one said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You.” 48) But He answered and said to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” 49) And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! 50) For whoever does the will of My father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”
So, once again, it is a requirement that is placed upon us—that we, like Jesus Christ, learn to do the Father’s will. In Matthew 18, you know what He said there about humility. Jesus the Christ was able to sacrifice His will as a result of His humility. The fact was that He said, “I can do nothing of Myself.” He depended fully on the Father while He was in the flesh.
Matthew 18:1-2 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2) Then Jesus called a little child to Him, and set him in the midst of them.
You can put the other scriptures together, and you know
that they were fussing and arguing—even right up to the Passover. At the last
Passover that Christ kept, they were arguing and fussing over who would be the
greatest in the
Matthew 18:2-3 Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, 3) and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”
In this sense of what He is talking about right here, Jesus Christ became “as a little child” while He was in the flesh in His relationship with His Father. As this is speaking here, He set the example.
Matthew 18:4 “Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
Humility is required. He said, “Unless you are converted and become as little children,”—and He connected that directly with humility—“you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” So this is an absolute requirement. We are to emulate His example! And remember now that He is saying this in response to what these guys were talking about.
Colossians 1:9 [Paul is writing to the brethren at Colosse.] For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
The need to be filled with the knowledge of His will is important for all of us. This is something that we all have an extreme need of. And Paul prayed that would be happening in the disciples at Colosse—that they would come to a knowledge of God’s will. In order for it to happen in each individual disciple, it requires that disciple’s sincere and genuine prayer; and not only prayer, but meditation as well.
I think last week Steve mentioned the many times and examples we have of how Christ went to a solitary place and prayed. Why did He do that? Did He feel the need? Did He feel that He had to have help, and He needed that help to remain humble and to continue to make the sacrifice of His will? He went to a solitary place so many times, I think not only just to pray; but to meditate and think—to get His mind properly oriented. With all the contact with the physical, He needed to orient Himself back to why He was there and what His purpose was. He had to constantly do that, and to think through also what the effect of following His will would be.
Sometimes it is very difficult to know whether we are following God’s will or our own. Sometimes it is very difficult to know. We pray, and we ask God to show us His will. We begin to learn, and we begin to grow in certain understanding. And sometimes we have to come to the point where we ask ourselves, “Is this coming from God? Or is it coming from my own intellect, my own pursuit? Is this my will, or is this Your will?” It is important that we go in sincere prayer and meditation.
One of the things I think we ought to do in every case, when we are faced with a situation like this, is consider the fruits. Think it through thoroughly. I know Jesus must have done that—time after time after time. Remember that He said, “By their fruits you shall know them.” He was talking about false prophets in particular. But by fruits—by results—we need to think through how following a certain course will produce certain fruits. Meditate about it, and think deeply about it.
Colossians
This is what we should be seeking to do. Our walk must be in harmony with His will. Notice this. “That you may have a walk worthy of the Lord.” This is our future Husband. That we have a walk worthy of Him, “fully pleasing Him.” That is what an espoused wife is to do—conform to the point that she pleases Him.
Colossians
We must constantly be seeking both God the Father and Jesus Christ’s help in this process—Their involvement in this process.
Colossians
This must be kept in focus. We read last time from Colossians 3. I am not going to go there again, but you might want to jot it down. Colossians 3:1-4, where it says our thoughts should be on the things above—not on the things on this earth. And you can go to Hebrews 12:1-2 and tie it with this. That is, Jesus Christ’s example Himself. For the joy that was set before Him, He ran His course.
Ephesians 5: 8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.
We should be able to see a significant contrast from now and when we first began. Walking as children of light, connected back with what we just read there, involves walking as those who have knowledge of God’s will. This involves walking in humility and sacrifice. Knowledge is a two-edged sword. The knowledge that we come to have is a two-edged sword. As we progress in knowledge, many times humility suffers. We can read in I Corinthians 8:1-2 that knowledge puffs up. It causes us to be arrogant.
Once again, Jesus Christ had knowledge—far more than any of us. If anybody had the right to be arrogant, He did; but He wasn’t. We need, as we read there in II Corinthians 13:5, to examine ourselves. Look deep down within ourselves, and be honest with ourselves. In this very basic area of humility and the sacrificing of our will, how close to emulating Jesus Christ are we? Only you can answer. Only you can answer for yourself, and only I can answer for myself.
Even then, we need to be on our knees, seeking God’s help to open our minds to be able to clearly see ourselves as He sees us. It is important, brethren, that we do this as we look forward to the Passover, and as we look forward to fulfilling the role that we have been called to—as we are in this process of betrothal, as we are in this process of espousal—looking forward to our marriage to Jesus the Christ. We need these characteristics. We need this humility. We need to be able to sacrifice our own will and follow the will of our Father.
If they are not there, if humility is replaced with pride, if the sacrificing of our own will turns to us following our will—the process stops. The process of our betrothal stops. You see we do have a part in this. We are to yield ourselves to God’s Holy Spirit, which will lead us in humility and will lead us in a direction of being willing to sacrifice our will.
We have been called to an incredible calling, brethren. We are five weeks away from the Passover. Let’s continue the process of preparing ourselves to sit down at one of the most valued seats that there can be. To be able to sit before Jesus Christ and His Father on that night, to once again accept those symbols of the sacrifice that Christ made.
Transcribed by plh, November 2004