The Perfect Power Of Christ – In Me

Every Man Perfect in Christ

The Perfect Power Of Christ  - In Me

Is it true according to the Bible that “no one is perfect?” Yes and no. On one hand the answer is, “yes,” because it is true no one is born perfect, we are all born sinners. It is also true that no one is perfect in the sense that they won’t make mistakes or sometimes choose sin. Even Adam and Eve who were created perfect could still choose to sin.

On the other hand, the answer is also “no,” because sinners can be born again as perfect saints in Jesus. When a person is born again they are made perfect and holy, just how God is perfect and holy.

Therefore, from this gift of imparted holiness and perfection the disciple can live a righteous and blameless life free from all sin. However, if the disciple does sin, they can be forgiven, renewed, and cleansed if they repent.

Simply stated, “We will sin less, when we believe God made us sinless.”

Therefore, it is time to stop living a mere human in the flesh (1 Corinthians 3:3) and live a Spirit-led life empowered by the divine nature of God (2 Peter 1:4).

SERMON TEXT

  • 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV), “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
  • 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT), “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

REVIEW

  1. KNOWING WHO YOU ARE: (1) There are only two types of people in the world; “Sinners,” Romans 5:19 & “Saints,” Philippians 1:1. (2) Though there are two types of saints; “Worldly Christians,” 1 Corinthians 3:3 & “Disciples,” John 8:31; everyone is expected to be a disciple, Matthew 28:19-20.

  2. SOUL THEOLOGY: (1) When you were born again you became a new person in both your soul & spirit, John 3:3 & 2 Corinthians 5:15. (2) Though your body is still sinful, you are to count it as dead and live a holy life pleasing to God by His Word, 1 Peter 1:22-23.

  3. TEMPTATION: (1) Inward Temptation: From your sinful body, James 1:13-16 & (2) Outward Temptation: From the Devil regarding; (a) God’s Word, Genesis 3:1 & (b) Your Identity, Luke 4:3.
  4. PATH OF RIGHTEOUSNESS: Let God, the Good Shepherd, lead you in His paths of righteousness, Psalm 23.

  5. MIND OF CHRIST: Set your mind on the things of the Spirit because the Law of the Spirit has set you free from the law of sin and death when you were born again, Romans 6:1-17.

  6. THE NEW MAN: Since your sinful body was circumised with Christ you are a new person that can put to death it’s temptations and put on God’s all the attributes of God’s perfect love!

PERFECT & COMPLETE IN CHRIST ACCORDING TO COLOSSIANS

  1. EVERY MAN PERFECT IN CHRIST: Colossians 1:27-29 (NKJV),“27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

    28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect (teleios), in Christ Jesus. 29 To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.

  2. COMPLETE IN HIM: Colossians 2:10-11 (NKJV), “10 and you are complete (pleroo) in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

     11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ…”

  3. STAND PERFECT & COMPLETE: Colossians 4:12 (NKJV), “Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect (teleios) and complete (pleroo) in all the will of God.”

UNDERSTANDING PEFECTION

  1. JESUS COMMANDED IT NOW: Matthew 5:48 (NIV), “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect (teleios).

  2. THE BODY WILL SOON RECEIVE IT: Philippians 3:10-16 (NASB), “10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

     12 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect (teleios), but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

    13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

    15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect (teleios), have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; 16 however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.”

  3. THEREFORE: (1) We have inner (spiritual/soulical) perfection now and (2) We must stand (Colossians 4:12) and live (Philippians 3:16) in our perfection until our bodies are perfected at the resurrection (Philippians 3:11-12 & 1 Corinthians 15:42-45).

DEFINTIONS

  1. PERFECT (Teleios): Brought to its end, finished, and wanting nothing necessary. In Jesus our salvation and new nature is perfect, “brought to its end, finished, and wanting nothing necessary.” Colossians 1:28.
  2. COMPLETE (Pleroo): To make something fully furnished, filled up, and brought to the highest level.

    In Jesus you are complete, “fully furnished, filled up, and brought to the highest level in God.” Colossians 4:12.

  3. PURIFIED (Hagnizō): Cleansed from all moral filth, sin, and shame. Because of Jesus your soul and spirit has been purified, “cleansed from all moral filth, sin, and shame.

    ” 1 Peter 1:22-23 (NKJV), “22 Since you have purified (hagnizo) your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.

  4. BLAMELESS (Amemptōs): Faultless, free from guilt, and judgment. Because of Jesus you are blameless, “faultless, free from guilt, and judgment.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NET), “Now may the God of peace himself make you completely holy and may your spirit and soul and body be kept entirely blameless (amemptos) at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

  5. HOLY (Hagios): Set apart, morally pure, and upright. Because of Jesus you are holy, “set apart, morally pure, and upright” just your Heavenly Father! 1 Peter 1:15-16 (NIV), “15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.

  6. RIGHTEOUS (Dikaiosunē): Upright, free from wrong, declared just. In Jesus we are righteous, “upright, free from wrong, and declared just.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV), “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

WHAT BEING PERFECT IN CHRIST DOESN’T MEAN

  1. YOU KNOW EVERYTHING: It doesn’t mean you know everything perfectly- you should grow in natural and spiritual wisdom. Consider that Jesus still learned, Luke 2:52.

  2. YOU DON’T MAKE MISTAKES: Mistakes and sins are not the same thing, a sin is a violation of God’s laws and a mistake is not doing something correctly.

    For example, those who are born may make a mistake by putting the wrong address on their friend’s birthday card, but that doesn’t mean they sinned or are not perfect in Christ.

  3. YOU DON’T HAVE A SINFUL BODY (FLESH) WITH EVIL DESIRES: This body will not be free from its memories and impulses until “it” dies.

    Hence, the reason for a new body at the resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15:42-45. Remember, you are not your body and so you are to consider “it” crucified with Christ and cut off. Therefore, you have been rescued from this “body of death” now (Romans 8:10) as you wait for the new glorified body.

  4. YOU CAN’T SIN: Though sin in the disciple’s life should be avoided because Jesus always makes a way of escape (1 Corinthians 10:13), leads us in the path of righteousness (Psalm 23:3), and delivers us from all evil (Matthew 6:13), however, if the disciple does sin they can be forgiven and cleansed (1 John 2:1-2).

    Therefore, the standard normal established default position of the disciple should be “blameless, holy, and, righteous.”

  5. YOU DON’T NEED TO REPENT IF YOU SIN: Repentance is both for sinners and saints. The sinner uses repentance to be made a saint, Acts 2:38.

    The saint uses repentance to remain a saint, Revelation 2:4-5 & 1 John 2:1-2. (Note: Here is the three step process where someone can lose their salvation and perfection in Christ: (1) Choose to sin, (2) Live in the sin with an unrepentant heart, and lastly, (3) Allow the sin to bring death to your faith and result in unbelief, Hebrews 3:12.

    Click here to read a blog on the warnings of Hebrews).

  6. YOU DON’T NEED JESUS ANYMORE: Everything a disciple has, especially salvation and perfection, is a gift from God. Since everything is from God, everything must be sustained by God- this foundational truth will never change. Therefore, just the angels and saints in heaven are perfect and depend upon God for everything, the is true with us both now and forevermore.

APPLICATION

  1. Believe you were imperfect before Jesus (a sinner).
  2. Believe you were perfected in Jesus through being born again (a saint).
  3. Believe that one day your body will be perfected (the resurrection).

  4. Believe that you can fall from perfection if you live in unrepentant sin (unbelief).
  5. Believe you can stand in your perfection and live as a disciple following all of Jesus’ commands (holy/blameless/righteous).

Hebrews 10:14-17 (NASB), “14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them,” He then says, 17 “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

Источник: //mpichurch.org/2014/12/14/every-man-perfect-in-christ/

Christ’s Power Is Made Perfect in Weakness

The Perfect Power Of Christ  - In Me

One of the reasons biblical Christianity has to be so drastically distorted in order to sell it to mass markets is that the market wants power to escape weakness in leisure, but Christianity offers power to endure weakness in love.

Verse 9 just doesn’t sell: “Jesus said [in response to Paul’s prayer], ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

’” In weakness? What the market wants is escape from weakness, not power in weakness. But to meet that felt need in the market the message must be distorted — and often is.

But by distorting the message to make it more immediately appealing, two things are lost:

  1. The truth of the message is lost.

  2. The chance to meet the really deep need that we all have in the midst of adversity is lost.

So what I want to do — for the sake of God’s truth and for the sake of meeting your deepest need — is lay open this text with as little distortion as possible. You have it in front of you. You be the judge.

Three Questions About Christian Weakness

We are going to talk about the Christian experience of weakness. There are three questions to answer in the time we have:

“The grace and power of Jesus makes affliction livable.”

  1. What are the weaknesses that Paul has in mind here when he says, “The power of Christ is made perfect in weakness”?

  2. What is the source of such weaknesses? Do they come from Satan or from God? Or both?

  3. What is the purpose of such weaknesses? Is there a goal or an aim for why the weaknesses come?

I ask these three questions not only because they are the ones answered in the text, but because knowing these things and being reminded of them in our hearts as God’s truth will give us the strength to live and endure and often even to thrive in the midst ofmany weaknesses.

Bringing the Questions Closer to Home

Just to bring it closer to home, on Wednesday we had a really good all church strategy meeting. One of the songs we sang has a chorus that goes this:

Since Jesus came into my heart,   Floods of joy o’er my soul the sea billows roll

   Since Jesus came into my heart.

As we sang it, I wondered how everyone in the chapel was processing that statement in the light of real life experience when sea billows of joy do not roll over the soul.

Here’s how I fit it in my own experience: Yes, since knowing Jesus, joy has rolled over me the waves of the sea, but not always. There are times when the tide goes out.

God is still God; joy is still joy; but I am baking in the seaweed on the beach waiting for the tide to come in.

What makes days and months and years that livable is the grace and power of Jesus described in our text.

1. What Weaknesses?

What are the weaknesses Paul has in mind here when he quotes Jesus as saying in verse 9, “My power is made perfect in weakness”? And then says, “I will all the more gladly boast in my weaknesses”? And then again in verse 10 says, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses”?

Four Other Words to Fill Out the Meaning

I think the safest way to answer is to let the four other words in verse 10 fill out what he has in mind. What he summarizes as weaknesses in verse 9 he spells out in four other words in verse 10: insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.

  1. Insults — when people think of clever ways of making your faith or your lifestyle or your words look stupid or weird or inconsistent. When we were giving out “Finding Your Field of Dreams” at the stadium, I heard one man say mockingly, “And the Lord said, Play ball.” And all his friends laughed.

  2. Hardships — circumstances forced upon you, reversals of fortune against your will. This could refer to any situation where you feel trapped. You didn’t plan it or think it would be this way, but there you are, and it’s hard.

  3. Persecutions — wounds or abuses or painful circumstances or acts of prejudice or exploitation from people because of your Christian faith or your Christian moral commitments. It’s when you are not treated fairly. You get a raw deal.

  4. Calamities (or distresses or difficulties or troubles) — the idea is one of pressure or crushing or being weighed down; circumstances that tend to overcome you with stress and tension.

Not Sin or Imperfect Behaviors

So you can see that what Paul has in mind here is not sin. He is not talking about a kind of behavior — we might say he has a weakness for lust; or she has a weakness for overeating.

Paul is not talking about bad choices that we make. He is not saying the power of Christ is perfected in my bad choices. Or, I will all the more gladly boast of my bad choices.

Weaknesses here are not imperfect behaviors.

What These Weaknesses Are

They are circumstances and situations and experiences and wounds that make us look weak; things we would probably get rid of if we had the human strength.

  1. If we were “strong,” we might return the insult with such an effective put down that the opponent would wither and everyone would admire our wit and cleverness.

  2. If we were “strong,” we might take charge of our own fortune and turn back the emerging hardship and change circumstances so that they go the way we want them to and not force us into discomfort.

  3. If we were “strong,” we might turn back the persecution so quickly and so decisively that no one would mess with us again.

  4. If we were “strong,” we might use our resources to get the calamity or distress as fast as possible, or take charge of the situation and marshal our own resources so masterfully as to minimize its pressure.

“God does not delight in your suffering. Satan does, and he must be resisted.”

But in reality, we don’t usually have that kind of human strength, and even when we may have it, Christians don’t use it the way the world does. Jesus tells us not to return evil for evil (Matthew 5:38–42).

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:12–13, “When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate.” And then he added, “We have become the refuse of the world, the off-scouring of all things.

” In other words, this kind of lifestyle, this kind of response to abuse, looks weak and beggarly and feeble and anemic and inept — at least it looks that way to those who thrive on pride and equate power with the best come back.

So the answer to our first question is that weaknesses are not sins, but experiences and situations and circumstances and wounds that are hard to bear and that we can’t remove either because they are beyond our control or because love dictates that we not return evil for evil.

2. Where Do They Come From?

What is the source of such weaknesses? Do they come from Satan or from God? Or both?

Paul’s ‘Thorn in the Flesh’

Let’s take Paul’s thorn in the flesh as an example and see what his answer is. In verses 1–4, Paul describes what amazing revelations of God’s glory he had been given — he was caught up into paradise and heard things that cannot be told on earth.

How easy it would have been for Paul to think that he was already rising above the ordinary hardships and troubles of earthly life because he was given such a privilege.

But verse 7 shows what actually happened: “To keep me from being too elated [RSV; a bettertranslation would be: “to keep me from exalting myself,” NASB, or: “to keep me from becoming conceited,” NIV] by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from exalting myself.”

Now this thorn in the flesh (whether it was some physical problem or some relentless enemies) is one of the weaknesses he is talking about. We know this because when he prays that God would take it away in verse 8 (“three times I besought the Lord”), the Lord answers in verse 9, “My power is made perfect in weakness.” So the thorn in the flesh is one of the weaknesses we are talking about.

A ‘Messenger of Satan’

And where did it come from? Paul calls it a “messenger of Satan” (v. 7) given to harass him. So one clear answer is that some weaknesses come from Satan. Satan afflicts the children of God through his angels or messengers. His aim is destruction and deathand misery.

But it is not that simple is it? Satan is not the only one at work here. God is at work. This thorn is not just the work of Satan to destroy. It is the work of God to save.

The Work of God to Save

We know this for two reasons. First, because Paul describes the purpose for the thorn in terms of preventing pride. But Satan’s whole design is to produce pride not prevent it. That’s how he kills: either with pride in what we have done, or despair over what we haven’t done.

Paul’s revelations in paradise made him vulnerable to pride and self-exaltation. So God uses the hostile intentions of Satan for Paul’s holiness. Satan wanted to make Paul miserable and turn him away from the faith and the ministry and the value of the visions he had seen. But God wanted to make Paul humble and turn him away from self-exaltation.

So God appointed the thorn of Satan for the work of salvation.

The other reason we know the thorn is God’s work and not just Satan’s is that when Paul prays in verse 8 that God would take the thorn away, the Lord says, “No, because my power is made perfect in this weakness.” In other words, I have a purpose in what is happening to you. This is not ultimately Satan’s destroying work. It is ultimately my saving, sanctifying work.

Just it was with Job — God permits Satan to afflict his righteous servant, and turns the affliction for his good purposes. (See also Luke 22:31–32.)

The Truth of God’s Sovereign Grace

So the answer to our second question is that the source of our weaknesses may sometimes be Satan and his destructive designs for us; but always our weaknesses are designed by God for our good.

This is why the truth of God’s sovereign grace is so precious in the midst of hardship and calamity. God is in control of Satan. Satan does nothing to God’s children that God does not design with infinite skill and love for our good.

This brings us to the final question, which we have already answered.

3. For What Purpose?

What is the purpose of such weaknesses? Is there a goal or an aim for why the weaknesses come? Why insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities, troubles? Why can’t I find a job? Why am I trapped in this awful marriage? Why does my dad have cancer? Why can’t I have children? Why do I have no friends? Why is nothing working in my life?

“God appointed the thorn of Satan for the work of salvation.”

Paul gives three brief answers about his own experience and I think they are tremendously important for us to live by.

Satan’s Purpose to Buffet You

First, he says that Satan has the purpose to buffet you or harass you (v. 7). And so it is ok to pray for relief. That’s what Paul did until he got word from the Lord. Pain is not a good thing in itself. God does not delight in your suffering. Satan does, and he must be resisted.

God’s Purpose to Humble You

Second, God’s purpose over and through Satan’s harassment is our humility. Paul was in danger of pride and self-exaltation and God took steps to keep him humble. This is an utterly strange thing in our self-saturated age. God thinks humility is more important than comfort.

Humility is more important than freedom from pain. He will give us a mountaintop experience in paradise, and then bring us through anguish of soul lest we think that we have risen above the need for total reliance on his grace.

So his purpose is our humility and lowliness and reliance on him (2 Corinthians 1:9; 4:7).

God’s Purpose to Glorify Jesus

Finally, God’s purpose in our weaknesses is to glorify the grace and power of his Son. This is the main point of verses 9–10. Jesus says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

” God’s design is to make you a showcase for Jesus’s power. But not necessarily the way the market demands: not by getting rid of all our weaknesses; but by giving strength to endure and even rejoice in tribulation.

Let God be God here. If he wills to show the perfection of his Son’s power in our weakness instead of by our escape from weakness, then he knows best; trust him. Hebrews 11 is a good guide here.

It says that by faith some escaped the edge of the sword (Hebrews 11:34) and by faith some were killed by the sword (Hebrews 11:37). By faith some stopped the mouths of lions, and by faith others were sawn asunder.

By faith some were mighty in war, and by faith others suffered chains and imprisonment (see also Philippians 4:11–13).

The ultimate purpose of God in our weakness is to glorify the kind of power that moved Christ to the cross and kept him there until the work of love was done. Paul said that Christ crucified was foolishness to the Greeks, a stumbling block to the Jews, but to those who are called it is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:23).

The deepest need that you and I have in weakness and adversity is not quick relief, but the well-grounded confidence that what is happening to us is part of the greatest purpose of God in the universe — the glorification of the grace and power of his Son — thegrace and power that bore him to the cross and kept him there until the work of love was done. That’s what God is building into our lives. That is the meaning of weakness, insults, hardships, persecution, and calamity.

Источник: //www.desiringgod.org/messages/christs-power-is-made-perfect-in-weakness

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