Lives Transformed

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Transcript:

Well, over the years of ministry as a pastor, I have counseled with married people and soon-to-be married people who had come into their relationship with the intention of changing their spouse, either just totally renovating them. Y’all already know where this is going. Either totally renovating them or at least changing some of those irritating little behaviors, and they would end up frustrated.

Can’t imagine why. They’d end up frustrated. And I saw this so many times that when Charla and I were engaged, I warned her, I warned her that I was not going to be easily changed.

You know, by that time, I was 29 when we got married. I already had a career and owned my own home and was raising two children as a single father. I had life lined out.

I had my routine I let her know that at 29, I was already old and cranky and set in my ways. And so, you know, if it was going to be a problem that I didn’t make any major changes to who I was, that she’d better decide that ahead of time. I said it a lot nicer to her than that.

But I just warned her, you know, that you can’t go into this expecting that you’re going to change somebody. And it’s difficult to change somebody. it’s difficult to change me.

If you could change me, she would have already gotten me to stop. It drives her crazy. She’ll bring my tea pitcher out of the fridge and say, who puts the tea pitcher back in the refrigerator with a milliliter of tea left in it?

And I’ll say, probably the same person who wants to finish it off with the three oyster crackers that I left in the package on top of the fridge. It drives her crazy, and she can’t seem to break me of it. It is difficult to change a person.

It’s difficult to change even little behaviors. That’s why people end up so frustrated sometimes in their marriages because they went into it with these ideas that I’m going to change, I’ll change him, I’ll make him somebody better, and they realize it just doesn’t usually work that way. And it’s even harder to transform, not just to change some behaviors that somebody does, but to transform who they are down at the very core of their being.

You see, a big change, a big transformation, usually requires a big cause. You know, if I’m going to just suddenly stop on a dime and become a totally different person, there’s got to be some pretty big explanation. Something has happened in my life to make me turn around and just be a completely different person.

You know, I am basically who I am. At this age, I’m basically who I’m going to be probably for the rest of my life, other than the intervention of the Lord, which we’ll talk about. If I start, you know, if I start dressing like a biker and riding a motorcycle around town and doing all sorts of things that my wife knows I’m afraid of, motorcycles, doing things that are just uncharacteristic of me.

if I start hanging out at the bars, if I start dyeing my hair funny colors, y’all call a doctor because something has seriously changed in my life. Okay, some of you may be bikers or some of you may have had dyed hair. I’m not talking bad about you.

I’m just saying it’s not me. And you know something majorly has gone awry that has changed who I am. It’s difficult to transform.

See, y’all would know something was wrong because it’s really difficult to transform who somebody is. Now as we’ve been going through this series of some of the arguments and some of the evidence for the Christian faith, we’ve been looking the last couple weeks in particular at how we know Jesus is who he said he is. How do we know that Jesus is who he claimed to be?

And for those of you who haven’t been with us the last few weeks, just to catch you up briefly on who he claimed he was, he claimed to be God. He claimed to be God the Son in human flesh. He claimed to be Israel’s Messiah, the anointed one who had been promised for thousands of years of Old Testament prophecy.

And he claimed to be the Savior of the world. There were some pretty tall claims that Jesus made for himself. These were not things that his disciples made up later.

These are things that Jesus claimed for himself during his earthly ministry. So how do we know that he is who he said he is? How do we know that he is all those things?

We’ve been looking at some of the ways that we know he is all those things he claimed to be. And one of the most important ways, one of the great evidences that we have that he is all those things that he’s claimed to be, is the transforming power that he had on the lives of those around him. And not only that, not only those who saw him during his earthly ministry, but those who have come to know him spiritually since then.

We see that Jesus Christ has transformed lives in ways that would be unthinkable, and we see that he continues to transform people’s lives today. Now, just my testimony, I came to Christ at a very young age. I trusted Christ as my Savior when I was five years old.

So how’s that possible? Five-year-olds don’t know anything. I agree.

There was a lot about the gospel. There was a lot about Christ that I didn’t understand then. There’s still a lot that I don’t know today.

But I did know one thing. I knew that I had sinned against God. I knew I was separated.

I say one thing and then give you a list. This is all part of the same concept of what I knew. I knew that I had sinned against God and was separated from him, except for the fact that Jesus Christ had died on the cross to pay for my sins. And I knew that if I asked God to forgive me, and I trusted Christ as my Savior, that he’d forgive me and save me, and I could be with him in heaven.

That’s about the extent of what my understanding was at five years old, but that was enough, and I know he saved me. And one of the ways I know he saved me is because I see the transformation that’s taken place in my own life. Now, at five years old, I didn’t have a dramatic conversion story.

I’m not somebody, I know of some, I know of a pastor who was one of the most, you’d never know it to meet him today, but he was one of the most notorious drug dealers in the Oklahoma City area, was absolutely, to hear him talk, was a vicious criminal. And I met him many years later after he’d walked with Christ for years and years and is the kindest, most mild-mannered, I mean, you might not even notice he was in the room, okay? Very different person. To hear who he was before Jesus Christ and to hear who he was, who he is after Jesus Christ, is an incredible transformation.

I didn’t have that. I was five years old and didn’t have a lot of opportunity to get in much trouble. And yet I can look back over the trajectory of my life and I can see who I have been and who he’s transforming me to be.

I’m a lot nicer than I used to be. Some of you are probably thinking, wow, how mean did you used to be if you’re that much nicer? I’m a lot more patient than I used to be, even in traffic, where y’all know I’m not patient.

I’m a lot more patient than I used to be. I see all sorts of things. I just see all sorts of things that he’s done in my life.

Am I perfect? Absolutely not. But I see where he’s come along, and he’s like the sandpaper that’s shaving off the rough edges and smoothing everything out.

I see the transforming power. Even though I didn’t have a dramatic conversion, I see the transforming power that he’s had in my life over the last 25 plus years of walking with him. And I know that if he gives me another 25 plus years on this earth, I’ll be still not perfect, but transformed to be even closer to what he wants me to be.

And I see the transformation between who I am and who I could have been if it were not for Jesus Christ. Because I also know the wickedness and the meanness that sometimes lies in my own heart, And I think, what if it weren’t for Jesus Christ there? I know how awful I would be. All right?

We see the transforming power of Jesus Christ in people’s lives even today. It’s nothing new because we have the promise in 2 Corinthians. If you’d like to turn with me there, if you haven’t already.

In 2 Corinthians 5, starting in verse 17, it says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

Now all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. What we see when the Bible talks about Jesus rising from the dead, that after he was crucified for our sins, so that we could be reconciled to God, as this passage in 2 Corinthians talks about, so that we could be reconciled to a holy God.

Three days later, after that horrible crucifixion, Jesus rose again from the dead. He conquered death, he conquered hell, he conquered the grave, and he did that for all of us. But in that resurrection, in that literal, physical resurrection, it wasn’t an illusion, it wasn’t a spiritual thing, He came back in the same body that was previously dead and walked around again.

And they saw the nail prints. They were able to touch the nail prints. They ate with him.

He proved it in numerous ways in front of numerous eyewitnesses that he was back from the dead. And in that resurrection, we also see in the New Testament where it refers to Jesus as the kind of first fruits of the resurrection. That because Jesus rose from the dead, it’s not only that Jesus will live again, but we are all in him raised to newness of life.

That he is merely the first of the resurrected. That because Jesus conquered death for us, those who trust in him, those who are in him, those who have been born again in him by faith, will one day follow him in resurrection as well. We will live again because He lives.

He gives us new life in the resurrection, but He also gives us a newness of life here on earth. Don’t confuse those two things. They’re both very important.

He will raise it. Those who trust in Him as Savior will one day be raised again to new life, to live with Him forever, to never taste death again. But even until then, we’ve not only been given that new life in the future, We have newness of life now.

He says, Paul says in this verse, in this passage that we’ve just read, that if any man is in Christ, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, a totally new creation. The picture I always think of when I read this passage is of a butterfly. And that story has been, it’s not a story, what happens with the butterfly has been used to illustrate the resurrection many times.

that that caterpillar goes into the cocoon and might as well be dead. It’s like a coffin where the old caterpillar passes away but comes out as an entirely new life, this butterfly. It’s transformed.

And that’s what Jesus Christ does in our lives because of the resurrection. Say, how do I know this? Couldn’t I just be imagining that I’ve become a nicer person?

Let’s look at what the Bible says about somebody who was transformed. Somebody who was transformed through a meeting with our resurrected Lord. I want you to turn with me, if you would, first of all.

This story takes place in a few different places in the Gospels. Turn with me to Mark chapter 14, if you would, please. Mark chapter 14.

Some of you may say, this is a lot of jumping around. Maybe you’re not as familiar with the Bible as you’d like to be. I tell you what, if you have a smartphone, it doesn’t bother me at all.

If you open up a Bible app on that smartphone or that tablet, if you download one right now, it doesn’t bother me. You can just jump to it probably quicker than I can. My greatest, what page is it on?

My greatest concern is not what you’re holding in your hands, but that you have access to God’s Word. Mark chapter 14. Mark chapter 14 starts to tell the story of Peter, and it’s intertwined with the story of Jesus.

When we start in verse 66, Mark 14, 66, what’s going on in that case is Jesus is standing trial before the authorities. He’s being questioned because he’s being held on trumped-up charges. They had nothing that they could say about him truthfully, But in order to get rid of him, they had to make up charges, and they had to bribe witnesses to perjure themselves.

And so Jesus is standing trial in this kangaroo court, and Peter has followed him from the Garden of Gethsemane where he was arrested. He has followed him at sort of a distance. Initially, he was willing to cut off somebody’s ear to try to defend Jesus.

Jesus tells him to put the sword down, puts the guy’s ear back on, and then goes willingly off to his arrest. Peter realizes, this is not going the way I thought it was going to. And so Peter kind of is afraid at this point. Peter is following at a distance when Jesus gets to the place where he stands trial. And the one who was willing earlier to die for Jesus was told by Jesus, no, you’ll deny me three times.

And that’s where we pick up. In verse 66, now as Peter was below in the courtyard, below where Jesus was being tried, as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came. And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, You also were with Jesus of Nazareth.

She says, Wait, you were one of his followers. You’re one of them. But he denied it, saying, I neither know nor understand what you are saying.

And he went out on the porch in a rooster crowed. Now Jesus said he would deny him three times before the rooster crowed twice. Verse 69, and the servant girl saw him again and began to say to those who stood by, this is one of them, but he denied it again.

And a little later, those who stood by said to Peter again, surely you’re one of them, for you are a Galilean and your speech shows it. We can tell you’re one of them. We can tell you must have come down from Galilee with Jesus because your accent gives you away.

kind of like the last time I was in Phoenix out west. Well, Charla and I experienced this in Santa Fe too. We were out west and sitting in a restaurant just talking the way we do, and people kept turning around and staring at us, and we couldn’t figure out for a couple days why they were staring at us. And sometimes when we’re mad at the kids who weren’t there or we’re just having a good time, we forget about things, and, you know, your accent comes out a little stronger, And finally we realize they’re staring at us because we were talking oaky at each other and they’re not used to hearing it.

Everybody turns around, you’re not from here. No kidding. They said, you’re not from here, Peter.

Your accent tells us that you must have come down from Galilee with the rest of them. Because you don’t talk like you’re from around here. You’re a Galilean and your speech shows it.

Verse 71, then he began to curse and swear. He’s pretty emphatic. I mean, at this point, he is full on the politician holding his thumb up at the camera and pleading his innocence.

He is swearing. He’s cursing. How dare you?

And, you know, if you want somebody to think you are not with Jesus, swear and curse at them. That’s a pretty good way to convince them. Swear and curse at them.

He begins to swear and curse. He’s doing everything he can to try to convince these people, I don’t know Jesus. Do you know why he was doing that?

Because he was afraid. Because Peter, for all his bravado, when it didn’t really matter, I mean, when his life wasn’t on the line, when he wasn’t in any danger, had his moments of cowardice. You know, I think of Peter sometimes as a brave person because often he’s the first one to tell Jesus, yeah, I’ll climb out of the boat.

he’s the first one to shoot his mouth off when Jesus is asking a question. But when it comes to putting his neck on the line that they’re going to come after him next, we see that there’s a little bit of a cowardly streak to Peter. And I’m not putting Peter down.

I have those moments too when I think, should I say something or should I not? Should I do this or should I not? When I already know the answer, it’s just that I’m scared.

Peter was scared. He didn’t want to identify with Jesus at this point Because Jesus is in hot water, and if I side with him, I’ll be in hot water too. So he began to curse and swear, I do not know this man of whom you speak.

I do not know this man of whom you speak. A second time the rooster crowed. Verse 72.

Then Peter called to mind the word that Jesus had said to him, Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times. And he thought about it, and when he thought about it, he wept. We see Peter here as somebody who was fearful, somebody who was cowardly, somebody who was willing to deny Jesus to save his own skin.

That’s not just a behavior that he exhibited one time, that goes to who your character is, what your character is. Who you are in a crisis is typically who you really are. So we look at Peter and we see somebody who was so afraid that he was willing to deny Jesus to save his own skin.

But that’s not all there is to the story of Peter. That’s not even as deep as it goes. Turn with me to John chapter 20.

John chapter 20, if you would. I’m going to look at a couple of verses here. John chapter 20.

Now, this is right after the story of the resurrection begins to spread. The women have just discovered that the tomb is empty. This is days later, after the crucifixion, after Jesus has been taken down off the cross, dead, after he’s been buried, and now the women have found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty, they come looking for the disciples.

And it says, verse 19 of John chapter 20, then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the disciples were shut, excuse me, when the doors were shut, the disciples were not shut, the doors were shut. When the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, Peace be with you. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. And Jesus said to them again, Peace to you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you.

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, received the Holy Spirit. Folks, this was after, again, the women have found the tomb empty. It seems to be even after the disciples have gone to check the tomb out and found it empty themselves.

What we see that Peter was doing throughout this whole weekend is that he had run away and hidden. Now, it seems to us to be an understandable thing that Peter would run and hide after Jesus had been crucified. And that’s exactly what he did.

I think any one of us would have done the same thing. But we see someone again who is fearful. You know, they know, they see, I’m affiliated with Jesus.

I could be in real trouble here. So he and the other disciples, they were with him too, they went and hid. And it seems like they continued to hide even after they first began to hear the message of the resurrection.

Because the women had told him, and some of the gospel accounts talk about how Peter and John went down to check out the tomb themselves. This is later that evening. They’re still locked up and shut up and hiding because they’re afraid of what might happen to them if word gets out.

So we see this picture of Peter and who he really was. Again, not just his behaviors, not just some little things that he did, but the core of his character, that before the resurrection, even though he loved Jesus, he was a fearful man. Even though he had moments of bravery, When it came to a crisis, he was a fearful man who was willing to deny Jesus and who was willing to run and hide in order to save his own skin.

It’s understandable. It’s understandable. Most of us would probably be the same way.

But look at the difference. He meets with Jesus on this instance, as the others do as well. He meets with Jesus.

He sees Jesus several times over the course of the next few days. Not just, folks, don’t forget, he’s not just seeing Jesus. He’s seeing Jesus who has been raised from the dead.

He has encountered the Lord who died and was buried and is now risen again. He’s seen the empty tomb to know there’s nobody there. He sees the body up walking around.

He interacts with him to know it’s not mistaken identity. It’s not somebody else. It’s the Savior that he knew for all those years.

He’s given access to the nail prints in the hands. He eats with him. He knows this is not a ghost. It’s not a spirit.

This is Jesus back from the dead. And folks, the 40 days that he spends with Jesus, who has risen from the dead, change his life. They transform his life.

His experience with the resurrected Jesus changes his life, transforms him into somebody completely different. And we pick up and see the difference in Acts chapter 2. the same groups of people the same groups of people there in Jerusalem who had tried to well who had put Jesus to death the same people who were a danger just 50 days ago so this is 10 days after Jesus ascended back to heaven he rose from the dead he spent 40 days here on earth and then he ascended back to heaven 10 days later we see Peter in Jerusalem and the other disciples and they’re still dealing with these people in Jerusalem who were as much a threat as they were to Jesus, because all throughout the book of Acts, they’re trying to put the disciples in jail.

They’re trying to kill them. They’re trying to do all sorts of things to stamp out the message of Jesus Christ. And Peter interacts with these people, and instead of denying Jesus, he declares Jesus. Instead of hiding from the people, he stands out in the big middle of the people in the city of Jerusalem and boldly preaches not only Jesus, but his resurrection from the dead.

I want to read through this as quickly as I can. It’s kind of a lengthy outline of his sermon, but it’s important that we hear it this morning. Peter, standing up, it says, starting in verse 14, Acts 2, 14.

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and heed my words, for these are not drunk, as ye suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. They began to speak in tongues when the Holy Spirit came on them. They began to speak in languages that people from other areas heard and recognized, languages that they did not know, and they began to preach Jesus in those languages to people so that they could hear.

And the people in Jerusalem, the Jews from there in Judea, the locals, mocked them and said, They must be drunk. And Peter said, They’re not drunk. It’s only the third hour of the day.

It’s nine o’clock in the morning. They’re not drunk. Verse 16, but this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel.

And he said, and it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions.

Your old men shall dream dreams. And on my men servants and on my maid servants, I will pour out my spirit in those days. And they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke.

the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. So Peter there quotes the prophet Joel.

And he said, they’re not drunk. This is what the prophet Joel was talking about when he said that God would pour out his spirit on mankind in the latter days. And so they’re here in the spirit testifying of Jesus Christ. But he goes on further in verse 22 and says, of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know, him being delivered by the determinate purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it.

So Peter begins to talk to them about the resurrection but he begins to point fingers too. He says, you remember Jesus. It hadn’t been that long.

You remember Jesus. He proved that he was sent by God through the miracles he did, through the wonders he did, through all the things you saw. He proved he was God and you know it.

But nevertheless, you took him and with your lawless actions, you broke your own laws in order to put him to death. He said, and you thought you were winning. You thought you were putting him to death.

What you didn’t realize was that it was God’s plan and it was God’s purpose. This wasn’t an accident. God sent him here for the purpose of being put to death.

He said, you put him to death thinking you were in charge, but really it was God’s sovereign plan that put him there on the cross. And just when you thought you had won because he was dead, God raised him up from the dead again. He said, God raised him from the dead because it was not possible that death would hold him.

And so he’s not only boldly proclaiming Jesus and his resurrection, but he’s no longer afraid. He’s no longer afraid to tell the truth about what happened with Jesus, and he’s no longer afraid to confront the people who did it, not just to make them feel bad, but as we see in the remainder of this passage, to point them to their need for Jesus as well. And he again returns to the Old Testament and says, David said concerning him, verse 25, David says concerning him, Testament about the Lord and raising him up and bringing him life, he was talking about Jesus Christ. And he goes on in verse 29 and says, men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David.

Let me be frank with you for just a minute. Let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David that he is both dead and buried and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne.

He foreseeing this spoke concerning the resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in hell, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. He said David spoke about this.

David, he’s still dead. David, his tomb is still occupied. The one he was talking about is Jesus.

He is no longer dead, and his tomb is no longer occupied. because God has raised Jesus up, he said, and we all are witnesses to it. See, Peter had standing along with him a bunch of other eyewitnesses.

If you’re skeptical this morning, you may say, well, who cares about those eyewitnesses? The disciples could have easily stolen the body and made up the story. Why?

Why would they do that? Don’t tell me it was for their fame or their wealth or their power. These men lived very difficult lives.

Of the 11 remaining apostles, not counting Judas, of the 11 remaining ones, all 11 suffered intense persecution for the rest of their lives. Ten of them died as martyrs rather than say, no, it’s not true. He wasn’t risen from the dead.

We stole the body. And some of the things that they put those men through, I’m sorry, if you were part of some grand conspiracy to fake the resurrection and you’re under that kind of torture, somebody’s going to talk. There’s that old saying, three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead.

An 11 person conspiracy, somebody’s going to talk if they’re really the ones who stole the body. But they all went to their death saying, we would rather die than lie and say, he didn’t rise from the dead. He said, we are all witnesses.

Verse 33, therefore being exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this which you now see and hear. He says, he’s up at the right hand of God the Father, and he has poured out his Holy Spirit here just like he said he would. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool.

So he says David was talking about him and saying he’s the Lord who would ascend to heaven. And he finishes by saying in verse 36, therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ, both Lord and Messiah, that he’s the Lord and he’s the Savior of mankind. Folks, what we see here is a radical transformation of who Peter is from before the resurrection to after the resurrection.

That time he spent with Jesus, that time that he encountered Jesus absolutely transformed his life. Peter was absolutely never the same again. How do we know that Jesus is who he says he is?

One of the ways we know that he is who he says he is is because he can transform lives in a way that only God can. We don’t have the power to change each other. Again, my wife is a pretty strong-willed woman, and I mean that as a compliment.

But she can’t get me to quit leaving that much tea in the refrigerator. We can’t just change people’s behavior. You want to see somebody transformed from the inside out?

That’s something God does. Peter and so many like him saw Jesus risen from the dead, and they were never the same. He transformed lives in a way that only God can.

You may think that’s great for them. They saw Jesus physically risen from the dead. What does that have to do with me?

Could he really transform my life today? Folks, there were people in that crowd that Peter was preaching to who didn’t necessarily see Jesus after he had risen from the dead. All they had to go on was the eyewitness testimony, which is the same thing we have.

They had the eyewitness testimony, and they had the work of the Holy Spirit pressing and convicting their hearts, saying, This is true. He really is who He said He is. And some of the people in that, remember, Peter says, The one you crucified, there were people in that crowd who were among those who condemned Him to death.

There might have been people in that crowd who helped hammer the nails. there might have been people in that crowd who were among the ones who stood at the foot of the cross and mocked him there were people in that crowd who were part of the mob that screamed that screeched crucify him and ye