Learning to be Christ-like
Learning to be Christ-like can be very challenging at times and we as Christians will experience many difficulties as we continue to grow stronger in our faith. Every time we take a new step closer to being Christ-like the easier it will become for us to overcome those difficulties because they will make us stronger and better Christians. One thing we must always try to remember on our journey to heaven is what Paul said in,
Galatians 2:20 "I
have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives
in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the
Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Anytime we feel like
giving up on growing more Christ-like we need remind ourselves that we have
made commitment to serve God for what He has done for us through His Son and
that our life belongs to him and it is our duty to live our life for Christ and
be a shinning lamp for Him in this dark world of sin, but this is easier said
than done. So, this morning we are going to be looking at the Jesus’ disciples
and how they struggled with becoming more Christ-like as they grew stronger in
their faith. As we do this we will see that we have struggled with some of the
same things they struggled with.
Now at first many of
those that followed Jesus did so because He simply invited them to come follow
Him and so many left their jobs to do that very thing. These men didn’t have
any idea the impact that decision would end up having on their lives and how
important they would become in influencing others to follow Jesus as well. As
Jesus started gathering more disciples they had they privilege to see the
master at work as He healed people and showed great love and compassion for the
poor and the down trodden but it didn’t take long for his disciples faith to be
tested as we read in,
Matthew 8:23 Now
when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. 24 And suddenly a great tempest
arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was
asleep. 25 Then His disciples
came to Him and awoke Him, saying, "Lord, save us! We are
perishing!" 26 But He
said to them, "Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?" Then He
arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27 So the men marveled, saying,
"Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?"
Now several of these
disciples that were with him were experienced fishermen and they knew how
dangerous the water could be and they were scared. I can imagine what was going
through their mind when they saw the Jesus was sleeping like a baby through all
this. They didn’t waste anytime waking him up because of their fear and they
looked to him to be saved. Then Jesus points out how weak their faith is at
this point and then he calms the storm and his disciples are truly amazed.
This same thing happens
to many Christians today. Things will happen in the life that will cause them
to have great fear in their lives because they have not learned to have enough
trust in God nor have they fully grasped what Paul said in,
Romans 8:28 And we
know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who
are the called according to His purpose.
God can take any
situation that may arise and make good come from it in one way or another and
when we see God working in our life and the results that come from it we to
will stand in awe just like Jesus disciples did as He calmed the storm in their
life that was causing them to fear.
Another difficulty that
Christians face is staying committed to God when times are tough or they don’t
fully understand God’s Word. We see this happening in John 6 where Jesus began
telling those following him that he was the bread of life that came from
heaven. Let’s pick up in verse,
John 6:51 "I
am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread,
he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I
shall give for the life of the world."
52 The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying,
"How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" 53 Then Jesus said to them,
"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
54 "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal
life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
55 "For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink
indeed. 56 "He who eats
My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 "As the living Father sent
Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because
of Me. 58 "This is the
bread which came down from heaven -- not as your fathers ate the manna, and are
dead. He who eats this bread will live forever." 59 These things He said in the
synagogue as He taught in
This situation happens to
those Christians who have not counted the cost of discipleship. They like the
concept of having a God that loves and offers them salvation but if they cant
wrap their minds around what God reveals for us to do then many times
Christians will fall away and follow Jesus no more just like these people who
didn’t take the time to try and understand what Jesus was teaching here. One or
two things will happen when we face situations like this, we will either try to
understand and grow from this experience or we will simply through our hands up
in the air and give up on God. Times like these in a Christians life separates
the pretenders from those who truly are trying to be Christ-like.
As we continue on this
chapter we will see the Jesus’ apostles did not allow this situation to fall
away.
John 6:67 Then
Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?" 68 But Simon Peter answered Him,
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 "Also we have come to
believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
These are truly words
spoken by someone who understands that Jesus had the word of eternal life and
He was willing to follow after Jesus all the way to the best of his ability and
we must do the same and realize that even when we don’t understand why God has
set up things a certain way we must trust in His infinite wisdom and conform to
his teachings found in the Bible and when find scriptures that don’t fully
understand we should not allow it to make us falter on our faith instead it
should challenge us to try and figure out what it saying. This will lead us to
praying for wisdom and having deeper hunger for God’s Word.
Now as more time went on
Peter, James and John were eye witnesses of Jesus transfiguration upon the
mountain where they saw Elijah and Moses but while they were gone Jesus’ other
disciples had another problem with their weak faith as we read in,
Luke 9:37 Now it
happened on the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, that a
great multitude met Him. 38
Suddenly a man from the multitude cried out, saying, "Teacher, I implore
You, look on my son, for he is my only child.
39 "And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly
cries out; it convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and it
departs from him with great difficulty, bruising him. 40 "So I implored Your
disciples to cast it out, but they could not." 41 Then Jesus answered and said,
"O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and
bear with you? Bring your son here."
42 And as he was still coming, the demon threw him down and
convulsed him. Then Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the child,
and gave him back to his father.
Once again we have
instance where Jesus’ disciples faith was weak and they not able to accomplish
what they wanted to do which was casting this demon of this child. Now while
demon possession doesn’t occur today we can still see how this relates to us
today in the fact that sometimes there are things we want to accomplish in the
name of the Lord but because of our weak faith we don’t have the drive to
follow through and so we give up before we really tried very hard but the
stronger we become in our faith the more drive we will have and we can and will
accomplish what we set out to do knowing that we can draw strength from God to
help us with goal.
Another thing some battle
with as we grow as Christians is pride and we can see this with Jesus’
disciples in,
Luke 9:46 Then a
dispute arose among them as to which of them would be greatest. 47 And Jesus, perceiving the
thought of their heart, took a little child and set him by Him, 48 and said to them, "Whoever
receives this little child in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me
receives Him who sent Me. For he who is least among you all will be
great."
At this point Jesus’
disciples were viewing their discipleship as a contest to see who was the
greatest. This is wrong attitude to have as a Christian. We should never be in
some competition to see who is the greatest Christian. Some Christians do this
by comparing themselves with other Christians and the only reason I can see
that a person would do this is so that they can try an make themselves feel
better about how much better they are than someone else. Christians who do this
remind of the story Jesus tells his disciples in,
Luke 18:10 "Two
men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax
collector. 11 "The
Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not
like other men -- extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax
collector. 12 'I fast twice a
week; I give tithes of all that I possess.'
13 "And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not
so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be
merciful to me a sinner!' 14
"I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the
other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles
himself will be exalted."
If we are not careful we
can get caught up in this game of seeing who is the greatest by comparing
ourselves but we must learn to get beyond this way of thinking and realize that
we are all servants of God and that we should not worry about how much or little
someone else is doing but instead we should focus in on what we are doing and
if we are doing enough based upon our individual abilities. We should spend
more time on encouraging others to do more for the lord instead of comparing
what they do compared to us. Notice the words the Paul tells us as Christians
to live by in,
Philippians 2:1
Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love,
if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded,
having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. 3 Let nothing be done through
selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others
better than himself. 4 Let
each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests
of others. 5 Let this mind be
in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
So learning to be
Christ-like certainly includes learning to become humble and to think more than
just about ourselves.
Another thing we struggle
with as learn to be Christ-like is to have mercy upon the wicked and we can see
that Jesus’ disciples struggled with this as we read in,
Luke 9:51 Now it
came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He
steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem,
52 and sent messengers before His face. And as they went,
they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. 53 But they did not receive Him,
because His face was set for the journey to
In this instance the
Samaritans didn’t want to have anything to do with Jesus and James and John
wanted to go straight for the jugular vein and cast fire down upon them but Jesus
lets them know that this should not be their attitude because he came to save
people’s soul not to put them to death at the initial rejection. Jesus
understood that these people could possible follow after later on and they
would never have that chance if they were destroyed right now.
Sometimes we as
Christians have this mentality. We want to people to listen about Jesus and
learn to love him but we get impatient when they turn us down and we start
thinking bad thoughts about that person and we might even start hoping that
something bad happens to them since they have rejected to hear the good news.
We should not have this type of attitude instead we should realize that at some
point in that persons life they may have a change of heart and then they will
listen to the life saving message of Jesus and it may be us that has that
opportunity. This means we should not give up on that person totally and we
should pray for them that their heart will be opened to the truth because God
wants all people to come to understanding of this truth so that they will
repent and turn to him. We need to realize as we grow that all God has asked us
to do is to plant his seed and water it and He will take care of the rest.
We are never called upon
to force someone to become a Christian or take vengeance on that person for not
listening because vengeance and judgment belongs to the Lord.
Jesus also sent out his
disciples to teach the people about how the kingdom was on its way and Jesus
has also commanded all Christians to go out and teach the gospel to the world
but again to able to teach other is learning processes and it takes time. The
Bible describes the word of God as sword and it also describes us as soldiers
of Christ. Well we first become Christians we are green behind the ears and
many times we first pull out that sword we may scream real loud and close our
eyes and just come swinging that sword in every direction. I think just about
every Christian has experienced this. I certainly have.
I have shared this story with
before but I want to use again because is great example of what I am talking
about. Many years ago I was sitting in my living room watching some cartoon
when there was knock at my door and guess who it was it was a couple of Jehovah
witnesses. Now I was young in faith and I knew I didn’t agree with their
doctrine and so when they showed me there little book with people living on the
earth talking to animals and they asked me if I would like to live like that, I
very quickly told them I don’t believe in what you telling me because its wrong
and I go to the church of Christ so you might as well leave and they did.
You can see that I
handled my sword very poorly and all I did was do damage against the Lord’s
church and the ability to for someone else to reach those people. But, I
learned from that experience on how not use my sword and I have learned over
the years that that best way to use your sword is to target the heart and use
the sword gracefully by seasoning your words with salt. You can only learn how
use your sword properly by practicing all the time and learning from the
mistakes that you make. In doing this you will learn to be more Christ-like.
Jesus’ disciples went
through many difficulties and learning experiences and this caused them to grow
to become faithful followers of Christ. Once they had grown their faith
stronger it gave the courage and the ability to face their adversaries with
confidence. In Acts 4 Peter and John were arrested for preaching about Jesus
and the Sanhedrin council wanted to punish them but they could not disprove the
miracle they had just done that made a man walk that had not walked for over 40
years so they threatened them and told them not speak about Jesus. But watch
their response based up on their strong faith in Jesus in,
Acts 4:19 But
Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is right in the
sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. 20 "For we cannot but speak
the things which we have seen and heard."
Then as we move into Acts
5 we see the apostles preaching Jesus and once again they get arrested but this
time a angle frees free them from prison and because of their strong faith they
go right back and preach Jesus again and are seized one more time and this time
they are beaten and told not to preach Jesus anymore but watch what happens as
result of this.
Acts 5:41 So they
departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted
worthy to suffer shame for His name. 42
And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and
preaching Jesus as the Christ.
Because of their strong
in the Lord they rejoiced in suffering for the cause of the Christ and this
motivated them to preach even more and this is how strong our faith in the Lord
can become as we continue to learn to be more Christ-like. Now, it doesn’t
matter how much you grow in your faith to the Lord because there is always more
room to grow. We can certainly see this with the faithful apostle Peter as we
read in,
Galatians 2:11 Now
when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to
be blamed; 12 for before
certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they
came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. 13 And the rest of the Jews also
played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with
their hypocrisy.
Not only was Peter an
apostle he was a elder at a congregation and he had grown leaps and bounds in
his faithfulness the Lord but in this instance he fell short and he sinned as
he played the hypocrite against the gentiles. But, I guarantee you he learned
from this and grew more in his faith and became more Christ-like and that
exactly what we must do as Christians. Never stop growing in your faith,
continue to press on to learn to be more Christ-like. I would like to finish
this lesson by reading the words where Peter teaches us what we must do as
Christians to learn to be Christ-like so that we make to heaven.
2 Peter 1:5 But
also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to
virtue knowledge, 6 to
knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance
godliness, 7 to godliness
brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours
and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9
For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has
forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. 10 Therefore, brethren, be even
more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things
you will never stumble; 11
for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting
kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
12 For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you
always of these things, though you know and are established in the present
truth.