Broadway Christian Church
Pastor Ryan D. Cochran
January 10, 2016
Sometimes a pastor is called to preach beyond himself. I have heard some teachers and preachers say that a preacher can’t preach anything that they haven’t experienced for themselves and know for themselves. I have found that in my ten years of preaching that there would be too often where you would not have a sermon on Sunday morning because the Word of God has challenged me and has pushed me beyond myself. I really feel that way this morning as I come to this Word that God has spoken to me—and I think to us. I say all of that to say that if you are challenged by the sermon today, if you are called to something you feel is just impossible for you—I am with you. I feel like this sermon is as much for me as it is for anyone else today. I join with you in receiving whatever God has for you today as I definitely preach beyond myself within the concepts that I feel that God has given to me as well as in the practical application of those things—many of these things I know that I wish I did much, much better.
We are called to become like Christ. That is the call of discipleship—to become like Jesus. Luke Chapter 6 says that when the disciple is fully trained he will become like his master. We are called as disciples of Jesus to become like Jesus and we are told throughout the Scriptures that this is possible through the work of the Holy Spirit as we work out our faith and our salvation with fear and trembling as we looked at last week. As we commit ourselves to that with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength we know that the Spirit will be faithful to change our hearts and to shape our character into the character of Christ. Will you pray for me and with me as we hear this Word today.
“God we thank you for your Word that it is living, that it is active and that it is sharper than any double-edged sword; that is pierces our hearts and has the ability to change and transform our lives. We thank you that it is a healing sword that cuts away sin in our life, that cuts away those areas of our life that should not be there and that shapes us and prunes us to be what you want us to be. Lord, would you do that in us today. Amen”
Today we are going to be talking about becoming like Jesus in His ministry. Last week we talked about growing up like Jesus and we saw that Jesus grew up in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and man. Today, I want to look at Jesus’ ministry and what He did as He went about Galilee preaching, teaching, healing and doing miracles and all kinds of things that caused people to come under His authority—to become a follower of Him. We see Jesus then in His ministry that part of that was taking a group of people—a lot of times it was twelve and sometimes it was more than that—sometimes more than 70 at least, sometimes 140 or more people and sometimes He would take them and He would send them out into the surrounding towns and villages and say to them “you go and you do what you have been watching me do.” He would give them these instructions about what they were to do. They were to go into these towns and villages and heal the sick and tell them that the Kingdom of God is near. In other words, go and do exactly what you have been watching me do in my ministry. We have been called to become like Jesus in His ministry and that’s what I want to talk about today. In our lives, in our ministry, in our day-to-day lives, in our homes, our neighborhoods, our workplaces and whatever ministry He has called you to do here at Broadway, that Jesus wants you to be like Him. He wants you to become like Him in His ministry.
I am going to start at a bit of a strange place today. I have been reading the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament over the last couple of months in my own study. I want to direct you to a resource I have mentioned a couple of times. If you were to join the Bible Project.com, there are some excellent video resources there. This organization is putting together some great resources that give an introduction and outline of each book of the Bible and then also takes different themes of the Bible and traces those themes throughout scripture. This has been a great blessing for me in my life, especially as I have been studying these first five books of the Old Testament the last couple of months. There is a particular video on holiness that I would encourage you to look at this week. As you watch this video you will know that I have begged, borrowed and stolen a lot from them today. This video on holiness is wonderful. It has taught me a lot about what I am going to be talking about in the first part of the sermon that we will be looking at today.
In the book of Leviticus there is a lot of talk about being clean and unclean. If you have read the book of Leviticus you know it is a very strange book for us. A large part of the book is this discussion about being clean or unclean. If you are unclean it talks about the purification rituals that you would have to go through and the sacrifices that you would have to make in order to make yourself clean. In short, those who were clean were able to go to the temple, the place of God’s presence, and were able to offer their prayers there. They were also able to offer sacrifices and participate in the worship there in the temple. If you were clean you could go to the temple and be near to the presence of God and to participate in the worship there. If you were unclean, you were not able to do that. If you were considered unclean you were not able to go to the temple, you were not able to go into the temple and to pray with God’s people and offer sacrifices. You had to go through something else in order to make yourself clean. You had to go through certain
purification rituals and make a certain sacrifice in order to make yourself clean and then go to the temple in the presence of God. As we read the book of Leviticus we see that there are all different kinds of things that could make somebody unclean. Certainly sin—going against God’s purposes and plans for your life, disobeying one of the Ten Commandments—would make you unclean, but there are also a lot of other things that would make people unclean as well. Eating or touching certain animals, touching certain bodily fluids, touching a dead body, having mildew in your home—all kinds of things could put you in an unclean state and unable to go into God’s presence. Being clean or unclean was a boundary marker for Israel that reminded Israel that God is a holy God and we can’t just go waltzing into His presence in any old way. It was a serious thing to go into the presence of God. As a matter of fact, it was really important for Israelites to know whether they were clean or whether they were unclean because if they were unclean and went into the temple they could die! It was really important for them to know what state they were in—whether they were clean or whether they were unclean. What is also important for us to know is that if anybody touched someone who was unclean, that uncleanness transferred to the clean person. This is something that I really want you to notice today. If somebody had a skin disease or a rash—if somebody who was clean touched the unclean person, that person would then become unclean. So we see that people who were unclean actually had to leave the community. They had to go outside of the community lest anyone touch them or their clothes and they would be unclean as well. We have these instructions in Leviticus that a man with a rash or some kind of infectious skin disease—he would be unclean. A woman who was menstruating would be unclean. Dead bodies were unclean. Anyone who touched a dead body would become unclean. What does this have to do with discipleship to Jesus? It’s a very good question. What we see in Jesus’ ministry, as He went about all of the cities in Galilee, the towns and the villages, we see that in His life, all of these things are reversed. When He touches a man with leprosy, He doesn’t become unclean, the man becomes clean. When there is a woman who had been menstruating for years and years and years, had this problem with blood—when she is in the crowd and she reaches out her hand in desperation to touch Jesus, He doesn’t become unclean. She becomes clean.
Remember the story of the Good Samaritan? There is a man who is walking along the road and these robbers come and beat him to death, they take all of his money and they leave him on the side of the road dead. There are two men who come walking along the road—a priest and a Levite. Jesus tells us that they are going on their way to Jerusalem to the temple and as a priest and a Levite they would have responsibilities in the temple. If they touch this man who had all kinds of bodily fluids and, in fact, may even be dead, that would have made them unclean. If they would have touched him they would have been unclean and not able to fulfill their duties in the temple. So what do they do? They get as far away from him as they can and then go along to Jerusalem on the way to the temple because they didn’t want to become unclean. So Jesus reverses that whole story. Who was the one who was really showing God’s love? Who was the one who was really fulfilling God’s calling in the Torah? It was the one who showed love and mercy to the man on the side of the road. In Jesus’ ministry, Jesus transfers His cleanness to those who are unclean—not the other way around. This is why it is so significant that Jesus says that His body is the temple. In Him is the holy and dangerous presence of God, and yet when He touches people that are unclean, they don’t die and they don’t make Him unclean. Instead, when they are touched by the hand of God, His holiness makes them holy. His cleanness makes them clean. His purity makes them pure. His life brings life to their death. His touch brings wholeness to their sickness and their brokenness. In the life of Jesus what we see is that instead of people having to make sure that they are clean before they go into the presence of God’s temple, in Jesus the presence of God comes to unclean people, making them clean by His gracious presence. Jesus said that He is the temple. The presence of God is with Him and those who come to Him and believe that He is Lord, believe that in Him they can experience healing and wholeness and reconciliation, whosoever will come to Him and call Him Lord will be made clean.
Friends, in your lives you are called to be like Christ in your ministry. I want to be so bold as to say that in your life, because of the Holy Spirit that is in you, that you have the great privilege and calling to be an extension of the ministry of Jesus, to be a person through whom Jesus will bring His healing touch. Through you and your life, those you know who know that they are unclean, who know that they are poor in Spirit, who know that they need God, that you can reach out to them and they experience God’s presence and healing through you. Jesus said that He is the temple and that those who are touched by Him will experience the healing power of God in their lives and are made clean. In I Corinthians Chapter 3, Ephesians Chapter 2 and I Peter Chapter 2, what are you called? The temple of the Holy Spirit. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit—a place of God’s indwelling presence.
There is this amazing vision in the book of Ezekiel. At the end of the book of Ezekiel, Chapter 40 through most of the book towards the end, there is a vision Ezekiel has of this temple. Ezekiel was written at the time in Israel’s history where the temple had been destroyed and Israel is at a crisis place in their own history. Where is God’s presence here on earth now? The temple has been destroyed. It has been burned to the ground. Where is the temple? Ezekiel, in God’s grace and His mercy, receives this vision of a temple. It is a really interesting vision because in Ezekiel Chapter 47 there is a vision of these living waters that are flowing from underneath the temple. These waters that are flowing out from the temple and are extending out into the world, and Ezekiel stepped into the waters and he goes further and goes deeper and deeper up to his ankles, then to his knees, then to his waist and his chest and so deep is this river, this living water that is coming out of the temple--it becomes so deep that Ezekiel can’t even swim in it any longer. It says that this river began to heal all of the dry and broken places all around the temple. Everywhere the river went there were trees and fruit growing up all around it. It says that this river even goes into the Dead Sea—the Dead Sea which is a sea that is so salty that nothing lives in it. It says that this river flows into the Dead Sea and makes the sea alive again. Teems of fish are thriving in the Dead Sea.
Turn to John Chapter 7. Jesus is at the Feast of Tabernacles which was the feast where God’s people are celebrating the presence of God in the tabernacle, the presence of God in the desert as they wandered in the desert. On the very last day of the feast, John Chapter 7, verses 37 to 38, says this: “On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” Jesus said that his followers, those who will be a temple of the Holy Spirit, would be a people whose hearts overflow with streams of living water. Do you see? Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and as you dwell in Christ more and more, streams of living water, like the image of Ezekiel’s temple going out into the world and bringing life to dead places, out of you streams of living water can flow and bring life to dead places. Because of the Spirit, you are a part of Ezekiel’s river flowing out into the world from the presence of God. The church of Jesus that is now scattered throughout every city and town in our world is called to be the people of God who reach out to those who are hurting, who are broken, who need healing and we are called to be this stream of living water into the world through Christ’s presence in us—not because of our own strength, not because of our own power, our own wisdom, our cleverness or ability, but because of the presence of Jesus in us. Do you see that? We are called to become like Christ in His ministry, to enter into our relationships in ministry opportunities in the way that Jesus entered into them, recognizing that we are continuing and extending the ministry of Christ into the world as a part of His body.