Setting our minds on Christ (Notes from D.McCallum's sermon
series on Romans 8)
Four ways we can set our mind on Christ
- "Taking our seat" (Ephesians 2:6), remembering we are living in the
victorious risen Christ
- Prayer
- Worship - putting God in his rightful place in our lives
- Scripture
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- Conscious reflection on our relationship
- Living in the light of our new identity in Christ
<TBD>
- Abiding in Christ (cf John 15)
Word study
- Words used for OT temple cultic worship
- Latreuo - a slaves' work
- Leiteurgeo - a public service
- Proskuneo - to prostrate
Outline of argument
- OT worship is a picture of what Christ has done (ref: book of Hebrews)
- OT worship has been fulfilled in Christ
- The sacrificial system is satisfied by Christ's death
- The need for a high priest and priests to act as intermediaries is gone
- The old system is obsolete (Heb 8:13)
- Legalistic Worship
- a technique for transcending into an altered state of consciousness
("spiritual")
- focused on me
- Worship
- is not an event, nor an experience or feeling
- is an attitude
- "Putting God in his rightful place relative to my thoughts,
feelings, words and actions."
- In NT worship
- Jesus is the High Priest (Heb.9:11)
- All believers are priests (1 Pet. 2:5-7)
- Acts of worship must be spiritualized
- Types of spiritual offerings, to be kept in balance
- Our self as a thank offering (Rom 12:1)
- Praise (Heb 13:15, I Thess. 5:16-18, Col 3:15-17, Eph. 3:19)
- Material resources (Heb 13:16, Philippians 4:18)
- Serving others (Rom 15:15-16, Heb 13:16)
- "minister" is same word as "leiteurgeo"
- Includes evangelism
- Desire for ritual
- may be based on confusion about the nature of NT worship
- may be based on a desire to keep God at a distance
- may be a desire for an experience that makes up what we are lacking in our daily
walk with God
- may be based on nostalgic longing for tradition, in disbelief that God
can speak to us clearly through the scriptures
Bible claims about itself that
- is not speculation but revelation (2 Peter 1:20, 2 Tim 3:16)
- God moved certain people to write, told them what to say, and
superintended the writing of it
- The Bible's teaching is eternal, unchangeable, universal (Ps 119:89,
119:160, 119:96)
- The bible truth will teach you and set you free (John 8:31-32)
- Everything a believer needs to live is in the Bible (2 Tim. 3:16)
- is transformative
- Gives us understanding that we don't have (Ps 119:27, 119:130)
- God speaks to us through the Bible
- Without God's help we will not understand (Ps 119:18)
- Gives wisdom and insight (Ps 119:98-99)
- Renews our mind (Rom 12:2) which will in turn transform us
- is spiritual food that satisfies
- Depression, listness, etc. follow from us not "eating" from the bible on
a daily basis: Det. 8:3 (mannah), which Jesus says is a picture of the Bible
- Long for the Bible (1 Pet. 2:2)
- Faith comes from our interacting with the Bible (Rom 10:17)
- is enjoyable way to encounter God and be built up
- Psalms 119:20, 119:97
- Learn the Word and mull over it
- its a spiritual vocabulary by which God speaks to us
- The scriptures give us peace and keep us from stumbling (Ps. 119:165,
119:103)
- is powerful
- God's words are effective ( (Isaiah 55:8-11)
- God's thoughts, ways and doings exceed our comprehension
- God's word accomplishes what he wants
- We can trust the Bible to say what is useful to others.
- Holy Spirit uses the Word to witness to believers
- Holy Spirit uses the Word to witness to unbelievers
- Using the Word in ministry opens our eyes to how powerful it is
- pierces to the heart of issues, the point of need (Heb 4:12)
The Bible under legalism
- "doctrinal wrangling"
- arguing about points of doctrine to deflect the Word from our heart
- analogous to "straining our gnats and swallowing camels" in the moral
sphere
- Formalism
- reverencing the words as "magic", not what the words mean
- e.g. the Koran
- e.g. "proof-texting" out of context
- not taking the time and trouble to properly interpret the scriptures
- the text is very reliable, but the context is different from ours
- What we should do:
- Study the author, the audience, the situation, the intention
- Learn how not to read our own meaning into the text
- "Properly handle the Word of Life" (2 Tim. 2:15)
- "Punching the clock"
Summary
- Get under the Word (decide to go where the Word is taught)
- Get into the Word (become a student of the scriptures yourself)
- Not just for professionals: almost every book in the N.T. was written to
whole church membership
- Lots of interpretive tools in English; knowledge of Hebrew or Greek
is not necessary
- Learn the Word (retain in our mind)
- To become a spiritual vocabulary in our mind so God can use to speak to
us
- One way to remember is to learn the train of thought in a book we study
(like we've been doing in Romans)
- Meet the Word (Jesus is the Word of God, John 1:1)
- The Bible is the "Written Word", Jesus is the "Living Word".
- After meeting the Living Word, the Written Word becomes newly alive to
us
Resources
Ultimate goal is "to be conformed to the image of His Son" (v29)
- having the character of Christ manifested in His followers
- Paul (Gal 4:19) I labor to 'form Christ" in you
- God wants to (1) build the life of Christ in us and (2)
manifest it to the world
Recall the contrasting biblical and non-biblical focuses from Romans:
- Sin-focus/performance-focus vs. Christ focus
- Law-focus vs. Grace-focus
- Self-focus vs. Others-focus (Romans 13)
- Kosmos-focus vs. Body of Christ focus (Romans 12)
"Abide in me and I in you" (John 15:4)
- The life of Christ embedded in us (Rev 3;20, Rom 8:10)
- You abide in me (I hidden inside Christ, Christ surrounds me):
God's view of us, our "position in Christ".
What is true of Christ is true of me.
- I abide in you (Christ hidden inside of me)
How people see us: our "condition" in this life
- The goal is to let the Christ inside manifested on the outside too
- Paul has been teaching us to view ourselves as God does, in our
position in Christ (position-focus)
Are we always looking at our condition (spiritual hypochondria), or
are we resting in our position?
Maturity:
- The growth of the inner life
- Fostered by Prayer, Scripture, Fellowship, Relationships
- But this isn't enough . . . what about the outer life?
- Needs to be a breaking down of our "outer life" so the inner life is
shown on the outside too
- "Life out of death" process
- 2 Cor. 4:7 - The inner life of Christ inside an opaque
earthen pot
- Rom 8:13 - The Spirit putting to death the deeds of the body
- The "outer man" hangs on and is not affected by the
things that nurture our inner man. The outer man has to be put
to death.
- God uses outward circumstances to accomplish this process
Suffering is our experience
- Rom 8:22-23 the world is fallen and abnormal, suffering and
groaning
- Christian are not exempt from the effects of the fall
- Christians experience additional suffering from people for our
allegiance to Christ
- All things, including suffering is used by God to accomplish his
goal (8:28)
- God's goal for us is to make our character like Jesus'
- 2 Cor. 4:8 - all kinds of suffering but not destruction,
perplexity but not despair
- 1 Cor. 10:13 - God knows our limits and will strengthen us to
endure suffering
Suffering brings the life of Christ into our outward experience
- 2 Cor. 4:10 - dying outwardly so Christ life's is revealed
outwardly
- Changing our circumstances is something we will try to avoid
this process
- God wants His life in us to affect others (2 Cor. 4:12, 15)
- This is a process of growth. But the flesh nature
will always be there until our resurrection
- We can become the "aroma of Christ" (2 Cor. 2:14-15) -
very desirable to be like this.
- Ultimate result is being conformed to the character of Christ
Service: Life out of Death
- Hard fact: choosing to show the life of Christ is also
choosing to die outwardly
- Our suffering results in life in others (the seed must die to
bear fruit: John 12:24,26)
- We have to be willing to bear the cross if we want to be of
service to others
- The service rendered is often not the content itself but
the life on Christ manifest in us
Conditions for life out of death
- Active cooperation with God
- Understand what God is doing
- Sticking it out, not struggling and griping
- Shown when I'm able to thank God for what he is doing in me in the midst
of my suffering
- Reject illegitimate pain reducers
- But e.g. changing jobs can be legitimate; if every job is bad, then
maybe you are the problem
- Illegitimate: Alcohol/drugs, sex, consuming, fleeing relationships . . .
wimping out
- Look away from the process => position-oriented perspective
- 2 Cor. 4:18 - look at the eternal things
- Rom 15:15-17 - don't fear, remember we are God's beloved children and
following in the footsteps of the suffering Christ
- We focus on our position - God will work on our condition
- Having an "eternal value system"
- Only an eternal perspective will allow us to go through this breaking
process
- Rom 8:18 - For I consider that the sufferings of this present time
are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
- 2 Cor. 4:16 - Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man
is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
- 2 Cor. 11 The record of Paul's horrendous sufferings, which he
calls "light" in the view of what he has in Christ, and temporary in view of
eternity.
- Our security with God is the indispensable context for true spiritual
growth (Rom 8:32-39)
- Our sufferings are not condemnation from God
- Nothing can separate us from God's love
" Hold still and let the doctor work."