August 30, 1998 - LESSON: 2 Corinthians 3:18-4:4, NRSV

SERMON TITLE: Image Is Everything

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INTRODUCTION:

1. I really like the last Sunday of the month when there are "Questions of the Minister."
1. It's a challenge
2. Its an opportunity to address your concerns.
2. The question this month is an important one.
1. It address some of our deepest concerns.
2. It has a significant impact on our lives both in thought and action.
3. The question is:
1. "What's this all about--this thing called living...
2. "What is God's purpose for mankind other than being a good steward to the creation?"

MAIN BODY:

1. The question is important because it asks us to look at the rationale that we use for understanding the origin and purpose of the world and life.
1. Rationale=The fundamental reasons for something, the logical basis (especially for a conclusion.)
2. Let me ask you, "How do you see yourself?"
3. What do I mean by that?
1. Do you see yourself and humanity as the product of developmental evolution or as the creation of God?
2. How you see humanity and yourself determines how you will answer the question of the minister.
   

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2. If God is the Creator, then obviously we are called to be good stewards of creation.
1. Creation was originally entrusted to us.
1. Genesis 1:28
1. God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth."
2. The words of God are entitlement to be masters of the earth.
3. But to be masters within the vision of God for the creation.
4. It was good or very good, that is without blemish of defect.
2. We have treated it sinfully.
3. It is covered with human graffiti.
4. We have God's condemnation for our treatment of the earth and its contents.
1. Genesis 3:17-19, NRSV
1. And to the man he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,'
2. cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
3. [18] thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.
2. We cannot remove all the thorns and thistles.
3. We can do much better with the task that we have been given.
5. This is important because human survival depends on caring for our total ecology.
3. It is the first part of the question that is vital to the need to shape life after a model that helps us to achieve the highest possible capacity of our nature.
1. Remember the question?
1. "What's this all about--this thing called living...
2. "What is God's purpose for mankind other than being a good steward to the creation?"

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4. What is God's purpose for humankind
1. To answer this part of the question we must admit that humanity was created in the image of God.
1. Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."
2. Genesis 1:27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
2. Because of sin this image is grossly distorted.
1. You can see the distortions by contrasting human behavior and speech with that of Jesus.
2. Jesus is God.
1. (Hebrews 1:1-3 NRSV) Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, [2] but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. [3] He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
2. He is the reflection of God's glory
3. He is the exact imprint of God's very being.
3. Jesus gives us the perfect example of God by which we can measure ourselves.

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3. God desires to provide us with the means so that we can recover that which has been lost.
1. This is the vital news proclaimed by Paul in his letters to the churches he pastored.
2. This is what is being communicated in 2 Corinthians 3
1. [18] And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.
1. We stand with faces unveiled.
2. Willing to look with the full brilliance of the light.
3. We see the glory of God as reflected in a mirror.
1. Glory is the revealed nature and actions of God
1. By which God gains a reputation
2. which reputation creates honor and respect.
2. It is reflected because we cannot see face-to-face.
1. We see the glory of God in Christ.
2. This is the mirror that is held before us.
3. We can look at Christ and see the glory of God.
4. As we see we are being transformed into the same image.
1. it is not an instantious and full transformation.
2. It is from one degree to another.
1. There may be painful lapses in the process.
2. There are not due to God's desires
3. but rather to our own selfishness.

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3. This comes from the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
1. We study the principles and gain knowledge and wisdom.
2. The Holy Spirit provides the power to add to our weakness to accomplish God's purpose, which has become our purpose.
2. [4:1] Therefore, since it is by God's mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.
3. [2] We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God's word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.
4. [3] And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.
5. [4] In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
1. We do not let the god of this world blind us
2. nor keep us in darkness.
3. The responsive reading carries a similar thought
1. 1 Corinthians 15:45-50, NRSV
1. Thus it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
2. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical, and then the spiritual.
3. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.
4. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven.
5. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.
6. What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

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2. That's why he writes in verse 51
1. (1 Corinthians 15:51 NRSV)
1. Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed,
2. The image will be transformed from corruption to incorruption.
3. From mortality into immortality.
4. Ultimately, the purpose of Christianity is to provides the means by which we can begin the process of restoration of the image of God.
1. It is more than plastic surgery.
1. A surgery which may remove the defects on the outside.
2. A surgery which may hide the defects of nature or of aging.
2. It is a transformation of character, personality and all of life and its relationships to nature and to one another.