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Hillside O’Malley SDA Church

Becoming Like Jesus

David Shin

Becoming Like Jesus - Part 1

Father in heaven, we have been blessed in this worship service with songs of thanksgiving, giving of our tithes and offering, and praise the Lord for the gift of music.

And we pray that as we pause for a few moments this morning to reflect on Your Word, that the Divine Teacher, the Holy Spirit, would assist us and apply the message that we need personally, individually to our hearts today.

Lord, we need Your help, and we thank You that You've promised to give us the Holy Spirit when we ask.

For we ask these things not in our own name, but in the precious name of Jesus Christ.

If you have not already, I invite you to open your Bibles to our study for today and our Scripture.

It's taken from 2 Corinthians 3, and our Scripture reading was from 17 and 18.

It was actually verse 18, but I want to back up and read verses 12 through 18, then I'll pick it apart with you a little bit, make some observations, and then, by the grace of God, apply it to our lives this morning in our study.

Second Corinthians 3, verse 12, therefore, since we have such hope, We use great boldness of speech, unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away.

For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament because the veil is taken away in Christ.

But even to this day when Moses is read, a veil lies upon their heart.

Nevertheless, when 1 turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

Now the Lord is spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

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." There's a lot that we can focus on in this passage, but I want to focus this morning in our study on verse 18, our Scripture reading, and go through the different components of this verse.

Notice that it begins with the phrase, but we all with, what does it say?

We talked about this in our children's story.

Remember when Moses went into the mountain, Mount Sinai, to talk with God?

He came down from the mountain and the Bible says that his face was illuminating or radiating with the presence of God and that radiation, radiation, that illumination was so bright that the children of Israel had to put a veil over Moses' face.

And Paul here is making an application, saying that today we can look at the face of Jesus, but we don't have to look through a veil.

We can look directly at the face of God, clothed in humanity, and see the glory of God with unveiled face.

And then the next word here is beholding.

In the original language, this is not just a glance, this is not just a look, this is a continual beholding.

The tense here in the original is a non-stop beholding, A continuation of this action without an end.

So this is not just a glance at Jesus, a look at Jesus, but continually looking at Jesus.

When we hear the word behold, it's not something that we're familiar with, and the only word that I could come up with that, to me, describes what beholding is trying to come across or bring across is the word contemplate, and the word contemplate means to thoughtfully look at a long time.

Some synonyms are to take in, to reflect upon, to meditate, or to ponder.

So, the Bible is telling us to contemplate, to meditate, to ponder the face of Jesus.

It says, Beholding as an emir, and then the next phrase here that we want to focus on is the glory of the Lord.

Now, when I read this word glory for years, I assumed that this glory was like this radiance, this brightness that would come from the presence of God.

But the Bible indicates that it is something more than this as well, and very quickly, I invite you to go in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 33, verse 18.

Moses is on Mount Sinai and in verse 18 he makes a request of God and he says, please show me your glory.

And God said, I will make my goodness pass before you.

I'll proclaim the name of the Lord before you.

I'll be gracious to whom I will be gracious.

I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

But he said, you cannot see my face, for no man can see my face and live.

And the Lord God said, here is a place by me, and you shall stand on the rock, and so shall it be.

When the glory passes by, I will put you in the cleft of the rock." There's a song.

He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock.

And I will cover you with my hand while I pass by.

Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.

God says in his mercy, you can't see my face and live, so I'm gonna put you in this crack, in this crevice of the rock.

I'm gonna cover you with my hand, I'm gonna pass by, and as I pass by, I'm gonna remove my hand, and I just imagine Moses peeking out radiation radiating glory emanating from the back of God and Sees the back of God and that look was enough so that the children of Israel can see Look into the face of Moses had to put a veil on him That's what we're talking about here but notice what God said when he said I will show you my glory He said I will make my goodness Pass before you I'll be gracious.

I will have compassion on whom I love compassion.

I believe the reason that the presence of God radiates with the brightness is because of who He is.

So when we talk about the glory of God, we're really talking about His character.

We are talking about the beauty of his character.

So when we put it together, with unveiled face, beholding, continuing to contemplate the character of God, it says that we are being transformed.

Here, the tense again is that we are not transformed and then we're done.

We are always in a state of transformation.

In other words, it's not about just being.

It's about becoming, as someone said in our Sabbath school class today.

So as we are beholding, we are all becoming.

We are being transformed into the same image, the same image of Jesus, we are becoming by His grace.

In the last part it says, from glory to glory.

In other words, from 1 state of transformation to another state of transformation.

This is a continual, progressive process.

And so I've summarized this the best as I can, best as possible, by saying that while we are beholding Jesus, we are continually being transformed into the character of Jesus.

This is a continual process that is never ending.

When I was going through college, there was a class that we had to take that was required for all religion majors, for all theology majors, and it was homiletics.

And 1 of the activities that we had to do for this class was to get in front of the whole school, faculty, students from other majors, and give a worship talk.

It was only, I think you only got 10 minutes out of the worship talk.

There were 3 of you back to back and it was 10 minutes and if you know anything about public speaking, it scares you to death.

And I'll be honest with you, every time I preach, there's a little bit of just like an edge of nervousness before you get up, and hopefully that goes away.

But anyways, so we were intimidated, we were scared, not only that, but the entire Homiletics class would have evaluation forms that they would fill out and then they would share it with the whole group later on that afternoon During the class it was just so intimidating and then you would sit down with the professor and he would watch a video with you and give you personal critiques painful I hope they burn that video from that year well anyways in preparation for this needless to say I wanted to be prepared so for a week after week after week, I listened to this man, Charles Bradford, North American Division President, eloquent, well-read.

And so I listened to him hour after hour after hour, same sermon over and over and over again.

And then I got up to preach and when I was done 1 of my African American brothers came to me and said, David, you preach like a brother.

Now, just so you know, I believe in my estimation, there is nothing even in the stratosphere like African American preaching.

Let me tell you, the elocution, the oration, and the delivery, and the cadence is just sublime.

And so as I was listening to him and so forth, I said, what do you mean you preach like a brother?

And so I sat down with my professor and he played the tape of it And I could not believe it.

If you've ever seen an Asian man preach like a brother, it was that sermon.

And it was just, I was like, that is so weird to watch that.

Well, what had happened was, by beholding, I had become changed.

By constantly listening to the cadence and the oration and the elocution and the delivery of Charles Bradford, it was just in me.

And so when I got up to preach, that's what came out.

And this is a natural law of how we are transformed.

Becoming Like Jesus - Part 2

Pray with me this morning as we ask the Spirit to attend us.

Father in heaven, Lord, we thank you for the words of that song.

In the morning, when I rise, give me Jesus.

Give us Jesus today, a glimpse of Your character, a glimpse of who You are.

May the thoughts of our minds and the meditation of our hearts be continually upon the beauty of the character of Jesus Christ.

Bless us now as we open this service time, this time in our worship service to spend time meditating on heavenly themes.

Pray that You would speak to us in Jesus' name.

Today is our second installment in our two-part mini-series that we've entitled Becoming Like Jesus.

And let's do a brief review of last Sabbath study.

It says, 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 from the Lord the Spirit." That was the focus of our study last Sabbath, and we indicated that there is this principle in the Bible that by beholding, we become changed, that through contemplation, we have admiration, which leads to our transformation, amen?

That through contemplation about Jesus, it leads to admiration about who Jesus is and unconsciously there is this Transformation that begins to happen in our own character, and we said that this idea of contemplation is to thoughtfully look at a long time.

In other words, it's not just to behold, but it is beholding.

It is to think about, to take in, to reflect upon, to meditate, and to ponder.

So this is continuous action of beholding.

And the tense there in the original language is a nonstop beholding.

So we have 2 things that are taking place.

As we are beholding, we are unconsciously being transformed.

As we think about Jesus, the natural byproduct is that we are being transformed in character to become more like Jesus.

And we looked at this quotation from the book The Desire of Ages.

It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day, notice the word, in contemplation of the life of Christ, we should take it point by point and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones, as we thus dwell upon His great sacrifice for us, our confidence in Him will be more constant, our love will be quickened, and we shall be more deeply imbued with His Spirit." So it's this idea that contemplation also involves our imagination.

We are to, in imagination, go back to the scenes that we see in scripture.

And as we join Jesus in Gethsemane at the cross, in our imagination, it leads to a transformation that takes place in our lives.

And we address this idea of the left brain and the right brain activities.

The left brain is the analytical, it's the logical, it is the part that breaks things, the part of the brain that breaks things apart, and then you have the right brain that is about synthesis and imagination.

I spent a lot of money, over $40, 000, doing my Master of Arts degree, and we spent a lot of hours.

Which side of the brain do you think we had our activities in?

It was in exegesis, in analysis, in systematic theology and coherence and logic.

But here we have this thing of imagination that is many times missing in our thinking when it comes to scholarly studies.

And I almost needed some therapy when I got out of the seminary because that side of the brain was dormant.

And I found that when I read scripture, it was work, hard work in analysis.

And I realized that God is calling me to engage Him with all of our brains.

Not just the left side, but the left and right side.

And the right side involves this emotive feeling of entering into the text.

And it's quite liberating and therapeutic, actually, that I can open my Bible and say, okay, I can give the analysis a rest for this morning, amen?

And I can just immerse myself in the experience of the text.

There's something that happens when we experience the text in this way.

And we read this quotation from Thoughts of the Mount of Blessing.

And as we sit with the disciples on the mountainside, enter into the thoughts and feelings that filled their hearts, understanding what the words of Jesus meant to those who heard them.

We may discern in them a new vividness and beauty, and may also gather for ourselves their deeper lessons." This is an important part of how we read scripture.

It's not just to be analysis, exegesis, and critical thinking.

It is also to involve imagination, to enter into the scene, to let our emotions enter into the scene.

And I believe it is when we do this that Jesus goes from a proposition to a person, From a concept to the Christ.

We look at the example of John the Beloved.

As the character of the Divine 1 was manifested to him, Jesus saw in his own deficiencies and was humbled by the revelation.

John saw his own deficiencies and was humbled by the revelation.

Day by day, in contrast with his own violent spirit, He beheld the tenderness and the forbearance and heard his lessons of humility and patience.

Day by day his heart was drawn out to Christ until he lost sight of self in love for his master.

The power and tenderness, the majesty and meekness, the strength and patience that he saw in the daily life of the Son of God filled his soul with what?

He yielded his resentful, ambitious temper to the molding of Christ and divine love wrought in him a transformation of character John had defects He had a temper He was ambitious But as he beheld the beauty of Jesus it filled his heart with admiration and through this process of imagination It led to admiration Which led to his?

It's the capacity to produce, and notice what it is, images and ideas and sensations in the mind without any immediate input of the senses such as seeing or Hearing it's that right side of the brain and some synonyms for imagination is meditation, visualization, and contemplation, and reflection.

Now I want to make a little note here on meditation.

There was this video I was so excited to share, and then things just went downhill after that and when I tried it up there But we need to recognize that there is a fundamental difference in biblical meditation and Transcendental meditation The video I was going to share was a gentleman that was premiered or there was an interview that took place and it was shown on AR TV Adventist Review television and He had gotten into Transcendental meditation He tells a story of how he was practicing these techniques to empty his mind and to reach a certain state of consciousness that he says that he experienced something very unique He came up out of his body and had an experience where he talked with and saw a person that looked just like Jesus.

Just like the Photos that you see of Jesus.

I should say the paintings that you see of Jesus and and he asked him While he was meditating and in this transcendental state he asked him.

And he said no, I'm not Jesus I'm an elevated being so they had this communication and every time he Meditated he would go into this transcendental state and begin dialogue with this being and he said that their Relationship if you can call it that developed to the place where he didn't even have to be in this meditative state.

This being would talk to him as he went through his day.

They would have dialogue and engagement and so forth.

And he said that later on he went to an evangelical community, accepted Christ, and found, strangely enough, that the same practices that he had been doing with this group that was subscribing to Alistair Bailey and these other types of thinkers, that the same practices that they were doing was being practiced in certain evangelical communities as well.

We need to recognize that for every truth, there is a counterfeit.

And what I believe that this man was actually experiencing was spiritualism.

He was actually having dialogue with a spirit, a being.

And this is the type of meditation that certain practices are leading to but here is a fundamental difference between biblical meditation and Eastern meditation.

He says, Eastern meditative practices involve the emptying of the mind, whereas biblical meditation involves filling the mind with the Word of God.

Reflecting carefully upon God's revelation of Himself in Scriptures, in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, and upon God's acts in history, including the life of the believer." Eastern meditation, emptying the mind, biblical meditation, filling your mind with the word of God.

Now we need to be very careful here because there is a tendency that when you see something that is leading a certain direction like Eastern meditation that there's a tendency to swing the pendulum and say, you know, I'm not going to practice meditation at all.

But I want to show you that meditation, biblical meditation, is something that is not just optional for the Christian life, but biblical meditation is imperative for the Christian experience.

Here it is from Psalm 77, verse 2, I will also meditate on all your work and talk of your deed.

Psalm 119 verse 15, I will meditate on your precepts and contemplate your ways.

Psalm 119 27, make me understand the way of your precepts, so shall I meditate on your wonderful works." Psalm 119, verse 48.

"'My hands also I will lift up to your commandments, which I love.

I will meditate on your statutes.'" This is just a sample of them.

Last but not least, 1 Timothy 4, verse 12, meditate on these things.

Give yourself entirely to them that your progress may be evident to all.

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Series

Becoming Like Jesus

Becoming Like Jesus - Part 1

Transcript

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