Sermons
Jesus: Manifested In Us
Sun, Jul 01, 2018
Teacher: Tom Blackford Series: Sunday Sermons - 2018 Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:7-11
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Jesus: Manifested In Us
II Corinthians 4:7-11
INTRO:
Good morning. Our text for today is 2nd Corinthians 4:7-11. While you are turning there I want to tell you a story that I was reminded of when working on this sermon.
The preacher was greeting folks at the door after the service. A woman complimented him saying; "That was a very good sermon." The preacher in all humility said, "I have to give the credit to the Holy Spirit." "It wasn't THAT good!" the woman replied.
I guess sometimes we need to be reminded our reflection of God is not perfect and it is something that requires constant polishing.
Turn with me now to our text for today, II Corinthians 4:7-11 “7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 8. We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9. persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed 10. always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”
I was reading in the book of 2nd Corinthians recently and came across a passage which I know I must have read numerous times. For some reason however on this particular day there were some words on the page that seemed to spring from the page into my mind.
Lets look again at these words are found in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 at verse 11 2 Corinthians 4:11 – “For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”. We have read many times 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 3 and the fact that Christians are open letters about Christ, but these words which I read in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 seem to be to give deeper meaning o what it is that we are as open letters about Christ.
That the life of Jesus also may be manifested in out mortal flesh. You and I live our lives in a fairly normal sort of way. We go about our daily activities in very much the same way as the rest of the world. The way we live our life is influenced by the way the world does things. So much so, that in the manner of our lives we may be mostly indistinguishable from other people.
Yet, in these few words that I have read, it seems to me anyway, is a challenge to us that Jesus, (think about it), that Jesus might be manifested, or seen or be made known in our mortal lives.
I. Before that can happen there must be a death. We are going to look at this for just a few minutes, turn with me to Romans 6:3-11 – “3. Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4. Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6. knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7. For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9. knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Let me say it again, before Christ can be manifested in our flesh—our lives—there must first be a death.
A. I have read to you a passage, part of which we often read and hear read, the first few verses in Romans chapter 6.
1. When we read those verses what we usually emphasize is this: A person who is dead in sin, a person who has died to God because of his trespasses, is then buried with Christ in baptism, and by the power of God, the action of God and in the likeness of Jesus being raised from the tomb, is raised to walk in newness of life. That is the usual emphasis that we give to this passage.
2. That emphasis needs to continue, it needs to be heard in our preaching and our teaching.
3. But I notice in verses 6 through 11, were it starts with the acknowledgement that our old man is crucified with Him, I see here is another kind of death under consideration. The previous death which I mentioned is a death because sin comes into my life. Because of sin I am dead to God.
4. The death we see beginning at verse 6 is a death that is a matter of my choice and my will. It is a decision that is a part of my life and it is at this point of being baptized into Christ that there is another kind of death. I have died with Christ and I have died to sin.
5. Notice in verse 6 those very thoughts. “knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him”. There is the death. But let’s go further, “that the body of sin might be done away with.” If we are going to manifest Jesus Christ in our mortal flesh, the body of sin has got to be destroyed; it must be done away with first. There must be a death and a destruction.
6. Notice he goes on to say, “that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” We no longer are to serve sin. This death involves my reckoning, as it says in verse 11, “you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin.”
7. That is how we must think of ourselves—as dead to sin. It is not the way I’m going to live my life. I’m not going to make those wrong choices any longer. I was not baptized into Christ, raised to walk in newness of life to keep on sinning.
8. Romans 6:1 says “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” And verse 2 asks the question: How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? [para] There’s a death before you or I can manifest or make known Jesus Christ in our mortal flesh.
B. I would like you to also look at Colossians chapter three at verses three and four. We have studied this recently in Sunday morning Bible class. Colossians 3:3-4 - Here’s what I read: “3. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”
1. There’s that emphasis on death again—for you died. This is to Christian people so I know he is not referring to me being dead in trespasses and sin, but there’s another death. That’s the death to which I made reference beginning at verse six in Romans chapter six. Look again at verse four before I go further. When Christ, (and look at these next words) who...is...our...life. We died to sin so that Jesus could be our life, so that we could manifest Jesus Christ in our mortal flesh.
2. What the apostle does here is go further by way of definition, by way of illustration, to give us some explanation of things to which we must be dead.
3. He says in Colossians 3:5: “Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth:” You can read the rest for yourself. The point here is that if we have died with Christ then these things which he enumerates here are part of that death! These are the things that have been put to death to us.
4. If we’re going to manifest Jesus Christ in our mortal flesh we cannot continue to be sexually impure, we cannot be greedy, we cannot be angry, we cannot be impure in our speech, we cannot lie and so on, all that is here.
5. These are the things to put away from us. Look at Colossians 3:9: “... since you have put off the old man with his deeds,”. That’s what this death means. The old man is gone. He is dead.
6. We cannot keep living in such a way that no one can distinguish us from those people who are carnal and worldly. We can’t do it because the old man is dead.
7. In Colossians 3:10, amazing words, “... put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,” Stop and think for just a minute about the significance of those words. To the image of—you and I—at school, at work, at play, at home, you and I are mirror images of Jesus Christ or we are supposed to be. People should be able to see Jesus in our mortal flesh. We are created after the image of Him.
II. Then the question is, how do people see Jesus in us?
A. We go back to this verse that I read a while ago from Second Corinthians chapter four at verse 11, the last part of the verse: that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. That’s how people see Jesus in us.
1. I was sitting the pew here a few minutes ago thinking how do I illustrate mortal flesh. I don’t know why this occurred to me. I thought what we should all do is pinch ourselves. Take a good hunk of flesh, just do that, and pinch—don’t bruise. Maybe it would be better if husbands pinched their wives and wives...I don’t know. What is being pinched is mortal flesh.
2. We’re not talking about some ethereal thing here. We’re talking about today when we walked in here in mortal flesh. Inspiration says that it is in your mortal flesh, physical body, that people see Jesus. This is not something that is magical or mystical. It’s just everyday life lived in such a way that there is a dramatic difference between worldly and carnal people and those people who have put to death their old person so that they could live as people in Christ Jesus, renewed after knowledge, to put to death the things of the flesh.
3. In First Peter chapter four verses one and two say this: I Peter 4:1-2 “1. Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2. that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.” How do we live as people manifesting Jesus Christ in our physical bodies, in the physical way we live? Here it is: you arm yourself with the mind of Christ. Armed with the mind of Chris—you cease from sinning. Does that mean we are going to live perfect lives? No, it doesn’t.
4. I’ll tell you what it does mean. It means that we are going to live lives more perfect than we thought we could and our lives are going to continue to grow in perfection and maturity. We’re not going to just say: Well, I’m just human and that’s the way it is. NO...YOU...ARE...NOT...just human.
5. When you were baptized into Christ you were crucified with Christ that the body of SIN might be DESTROYED that henceforth you should no longer serve sin. That’s just fact.
i. Do you manifest Christ when you play baseball? Sure you do. If you are a Christian and you play baseball then when you play you manifest Christ in your mortal flesh. Not in that you can pitch well or hit home runs or anything like that, but in the manner of your life.
ii. We manifest Jesus in the morning on the highway going to work.
iii. We manifest Jesus in the way we live our lives and the attitudes we display and the behavior we display toward other people. Are you manifesting Jesus? Can people look at the way your treat them and see Jesus living in you? Can they?
B. What should people be able to see?
1. They should be able to see pure and holy lives in our manner of speech... in our morals... in our integrity.
2. I hasten to say also that this doesn’t mean we make a big issue of this like the Pharisees in Jesus time. They wanted people to address them in a certain way. People still do that today, don’t they? They want you to call them by some title. Those titles sound important. They have a nice ring to them. I don’t have any title. You know a lot of preachers these days in the religious world have a title—reverend this or that or pastor this or that, father this or that. Vanity. If it’s anything I know from scripture, it’s this: the Lord Jesus Christ forbade such pompousness. We don’t wear clothes which identify us as being different from everybody else because we’re holier than they are. We don’t do that. Nor do we go around in false humility, sackcloth because that is same thing, arrogance, vanity.
3. It’s not that kind of superficial and false holiness to which I’m referring. When I talk about pure, holy lives, I’m referring to the choices that we make because we are Christians. People out in the world make choices on any basis they choose—desire, interests, financial, whatever. You and I make our choices, folks, because we are Christians and the fact that we are Christians is going to determine the choices we make.
4. In First Peter chapter two this time verse 11: I Peter 2:11 – “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul,” You see, friends, we make a choice because we’re crucified with Christ. We make a choice based on the fact that we are the children of God. We make choices to abstain from those impurities which war against our soul.
C. People should Jesus in us because they see us as loving and concerned folks.
1. There’s too much counterfeit love in our world.
2. I noticed this over in Romans the 12th chapter at verse nine where the apostle Paul wrote: Let love be without dissimulation. That word just means hypocrisy. Let love be without hypocrisy. In the Greek a hypocrite is an actor and hypocrisy is something disguised, insincere.
3. What that means to me is that this counterfeit love is not something new to our civilization, our place, our time. It was present in the time of the apostle Paul.
4. If people are going to see Christ manifested in our mortal flesh then they have to see us loving the way Jesus did—indiscriminately, openly, honestly. I’d like you to turn to the book of John chapter 15 verses 12 and 13. Unfortunately these verses often get read separately, but we’re going to read them together: John 15:12-13 “12. "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13. "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.”
5. There are two or three statements to make here first. My love must be with without a shred of self-interest. That’s not easy, but we’re not talking about worldly people. We’re talking about people who are manifesting Jesus in their mortal flesh. My love must be without a shred of selfishness.
6. I go further with this and I realize as I read these two verses together that verse 13 becomes a commentary on verse 12.
i. This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.
ii. Explain that for me, would you Jesus? Ok, here it is. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay...down...his...life for his friends
7. My question is: Are we consistent in that manner of love? That’s the kind of love that is to be manifested in the mortal flesh of Christian people.
D. For example people must see us as being forgiving.
1. I wonder, are we ever more like Jesus than when we forgive other people?
2. If you go back to that chapter in Colossians from which we read a while ago, chapter 3, you’ll notice that soon after those verses we read there’s verse 13. Colossians 3:13 says this: “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any (let’s go ahead and read the last part of the verse): “even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.”
3. Are we ever more like Jesus, than when we are forgiving?
4. I wonder how many of us here this morning are bearing some ill will for another person, perhaps someone who is here. I wonder if we do not realize that our not having dealt with those ill feelings in a Biblical way will ultimately show up in our lives in unchristian behavior. It happens almost invariably.
5. We cannot be people who have hearts full of wrath and resentment and anger and aggravation for someone else without, sooner or later, failing to manifest Jesus in our mortal flesh.
6. I know this is hard to imagine, but there are some that believe forgiving is a weakness. I disagree completely and wholeheartedly with that. It is only out of the greatest of strengths that a person can truly forgive, because it is like Christ. Forgiving is a weakness? That kind of statement comes out of pride and we all know where pride leads.
E. People should see us, you and me, as devoted to God.
1. In the second chapter of John’s gospel at verse 17, there’s this little comment that is made about Jesus: John 2:17 “Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.''” (Psalms 69:9)
2. That’s devotion, folks. The zeal for the house of God, in our case zeal for the Lord’s church has eaten me up. Devotion to God—this devotion was seen in Jesus Christ throughout His life and ministry. This devotion was uncompromising. It was not negotiable. It was consistent.
3. This devotion is not something that a person wears. It is not a sign in the front yard. It is simply the way we live our lives day by day manifesting Christ in our mortal flesh. We’re not talking about future tense, folks. We’re talking about today, right here in this building, the way we live our lives in this mortal flesh signals to others our devotion to God.
4. I want to turn back to II Corinthians chapter four for a minute and read just one more verse in this chapter. After he writes that the life of Jesus may be manifest in our mortal flesh then he says: II Corinthians 4:13 – “But since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, "I believed and therefore I spoke,''(now look at this) WE also believe and therefore speak,” This devotion to God, my friends, is who we are.
CONCLUSION:
We need to assess our lives frequently to see where we stand, on rock or sand. I find good times to do this are when I awake, before I go to sleep, when I am studying the scriptures. The apostle Paul said something about this in 1 Corinthians 11:27-31 “Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Listen to this advice - A person ought to examine themself before they eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment”. [para]
In Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth he again and asks them to examine their faith in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you-unless, of course, you fail the test?” And it’s in this passage where Paul uses the Greek word Piradzo which means to examine or prove, but the interesting thing about this word is that it means that the examination or proving is ongoing.
The Bible calls us to continually examining ourselves. Way back in the days of Jeremiah when God’s people had turned from the Lord. We find Jeremiah mourning over the destruction of Jerusalem and he writes in Lamentations 3:40-41, “Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord. Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven.”
As we come to the conclusion of our thoughts this morning I would like to suggest a question for us: Am I living my life in such a way that Jesus is obscured from others?
That’s not a hard question. It is a question that needs to be honestly asked of self and answered by self. Am I living in such a way that people are not able to see Jesus in my mortal flesh? Is all they can see is a person like the rest of the world, a sinful person with a veneer of applying a name? Is all they can see is a person who is—interested in self, but not too terribly concerned about being crucified?
In the book of Galatians chapter two at verse 20 is a excellent commentary on the whole lesson this morning. Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet NOT I,” [para].
See there’s the point. I’m still alive physically—yet not I but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Are we living our lives in such a way that Jesus cannot be seen?
We’re going to sing the invitation song and perhaps there are those in this assembly who need to respond in a public way. Perhaps someone is in need of being united into Christ’s death in baptism. One who is dead in sin, being baptized, crucifying the flesh, then raised from the water to reckon one’s self no longer the servant of sin.
Perhaps as a Christian already you are seeking the prayers of brothers and sisters on your behalf because you’ve not lived in a way that Jesus can be seen in you and you need the prayers of brothers and sisters.
Folks, if we can give you assistance in any way this morning in the living of your life for Christ, we want to do that.
If we can help you in any way, we invite you to come while we stand and while we sing.
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Song before the lesson: 230 – Let The Beauty of Jesus Be Seen In Me
Invitation Song: 120 – Solid Rock
Reference sermon: Cecil A. Hutson - 2/4/2007
Where and when we meet
Chardon, Ohio 44024