Following Western Jesus
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Going to a Yankee Game
None of us received an email that said dress like this, cheer like this, stand up during the 7th inning stretch
We did it because the environment in which we were walking into forms us to be a particular person
We are formed by our environment
When we talk about discipleship and the basics of discipleship, we must realize that we must also talk about how we are formed
Paul says in Galatians 4:19 “I am in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you
He says also in Romans 8:28 “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son”
God’s longing for you and I is to be formed in the image of Christ. He will keep shaping you and forming you, like clay on potters wheel until our lives like Christ.
Which by the way is a lifetime work
We exist in a formation machine
Everything around you is working to form you in some way
There’s the explicit causes like commercials (A commercial exists to form you to be a certain type of person so that you buy a certain product)
You need this gym membership so that you can be the type of person who is attractive and good-looking
There’s also implicit causes — these things are all around us but we often don’t notice their existence — they are not good or bad. They just are. And they work to form you
(Your habit, your relationships, the narrative scripts you believe, your family, your kids, your job, your community, your work environment)
All of these things are working to form you.
If you are a follower of Jesus, you’re probably asking yourself how do you be formed into the image of Jesus. How is Christ formed in you?
But what I want to challenge us with today is perhaps the Jesus we believe we are being formed into is not the Jesus of the Bible
We’d all say, Yes, sign me up. Let Jesus be formed in me. But what if our view of Jesus is skewed. What if the Jesus that we say we are being formed into is not who Jesus actually is
Do a little experiment with yourself right now. Take a second and imagine Jesus thinking about you.
What’s his reaction as he thinks about you? Is it disappointment? Is it anger? Is it frustration? Is it sadness? Is he strict with you? Does even see you or care about you? Is he vengeful? Is he aloof?
Now, based on that perspective, does that picture of Jesus line up with the scriptures
What we’ve done is we’ve let Jesus be formed by our worlds.
Whether its our family of origin, our socioeconomic background, our political leaning, our education, or our social media, we’ve formed Jesus in our minds in such a way that Jesus is subject to all those things
Examples:
Perhaps you had an angry parent who you never felt like you’d be good enough for. It’s easy for us to view Jesus in the same way
Perhaps you’re here in DC and you are working for your political party of your choice and you are trying to do good in the world. It’s easy for you to see Jesus signing off on the exact things you are
Perhaps you have gone through higher education where you were taught about science and reason. And as such, you view anything miraculous from Jesus with skepticism
We’ve allowed the formation machine to not only form us but also form our view of Jesus
We have WESTERNIZED JESUS
We’ve taken a middle eastern carpenter who lived 2000 years ago and assumed his wants, desires, and longings were the exact same as our today.
We assume that the Kingdom of God is synonymous or should be synonymous with America
We assume Jesus is middle class, western, and living for the American dream.
To westernize Jesus is to fit Jesus into the Western box
It’s to say that the goals of Western culture are the same goals that Jesus has for your life
What are the goals of the west? Often, it’s associated with more. It’s bigger, better, faster, and stronger
It’s more influence, more comfortability, more power, more money, more of the American Dream, more of what I want, more possessions, faster rise in my field, a bigger house, a faster car, more options, more freedom, and more affirmation from people on the internet
I know I’m generalizing but doesn’t all that stuff sound pretty good? Does any of it seep in your framework?
To westernize Jesus is to say that that is what he wants for me
If your view of Jesus is those things, you might have a skewed view of Jesus
When I look in the scriptures, I often see Jesus doing or saying the thing that goes against what our western beliefs and goals would say today.
This is one of Peter’s great struggles
In the first half our text, Jesus commends Peter for his belief. After all, it’s Peter who rightly calls Jesus what he is. You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
If you and I were to be asked today, who you say Jesus is, I’m not sure we would be able to give as solid of an answer
When he does so, he tells him that God has revealed this to him. He then tells him that he is the foundational rock of the church which even the gates of hell will not stand against
On top of that, he is given the keys of heaven and power. He now has the authority to work wonders and bring people under God’s rule
But the second half is wildly different.
Jesus speaks of his upcoming death and all the implications of that
He says it’s the elders and chief priests and scribes that would kill him
Peter pulls him aside and rebukes Jesus
Peter is assuming he knows better than Jesus. He takes his role of authority that Jesus just gave him and assumes his wants, desires, perspective and view are the exact same as the kingdom of God
Don’t think about the end or the cross as triumph. That’s not what it meant to the early hearers. What it means was humiliation. It meant their movement would be over. It means fear that they would be next. It meant that everything over the past 3 years is null in void.
When Peter hears this, he thinks that if Jesus dies, his whole life has been a waste.
He’s thinking “How could the Jewish nation reject the Jewish Messiah?”
Jesus turns to Peter and uses the word Get. It’s a harsh word that it’s used with force. It has punch to it. This is a harsh moment
Behind me - This is the idea of putting Peter in an insignificant place where he can be ignored. Jesus doesn’t want his vision of what’s happening to be interrupted by what Peter is saying
Satan - Satan would not have wanted Jesus to die knowing what it would mean for salvation. So anyone rejecting that Jesus would have to die is acting as a voice of Satan in Jesus’ life
What went wrong for Peter
How do you go from Jesus saying he would build the church on you to calling you Satan? How do you go from the foundational block to the stumbling block?
Was it his beliefs or his faith? It couldn’t have been. He just gave the right answer regarding who Jesus was. He had faith in who Jesus was.
It was not his faith in Christ but his perspective of Christ that was wrong
He believed that Jesus was the King. But he could not believe that Jesus would have to suffer
The thought of a suffering savior was too much for him
He wanted to follow Jesus but not Jesus on the cross
It’s doesn’t fit with the box that Peter put him in: “You can’t go to a cross, what about our movement”
He’s trying to make Jesus fit into the paradigm he see’s Jesus as
Don’t we do the same?
This leads us to a critical imperative in this whole sermon:
It’s all to possible to have faith in Jesus but not have the right perspective of who Jesus is.
Our perspective of the world, the way our world is forming us creates a box. And often, we place Jesus inside of that box and say that he has to live, act, and perform in this way.
In other words, we set our minds on the things of man rather than the things of God
THREE WAYS WE ARE FORMED BY THE WORLD RATHER THAN BEING FORMED BY CHRIST
These are not going to fall harsh. They feel subversive. But often the the kingdoms of the world work subversively
They get into our frame of think and try to create a new normal for us
I want us to compare these two ways of being formed. Formed by the world or Formed by Christ
Be Popular vs. Reject Popularity
Western Formation screams to society to gain as much popularity as possible. Jesus consistently reject popularity and lived with the consequences.
We are living in a time where the currency is influence. How well known you are. How well liked you are. How approved you are by other people
It’s to be liked, admired, and enjoyed by as many people as possible
Now, before you say that’s not me. I don’t care what people think about. It’s easy to say that when people like and admire you.
Set up a Coffee house and coworking space a way to be light to the community - articles written about them, community meetings about how they are a danger, privately going to their direct messages and threatening them, and even having a witch come in to try and cast a spell on them
They were essentially canceled. Now I talked with them and they are not out for the world’s approval. But it’s still incredibly painful to not be liked, admired, or enjoyed
This is what Peter fears — How will this movement grow in popularity if Jesus is dead. But Jesus seems to reject this popularity
For you, try these questions on for size to see if you are being formed by western thought:
How am I coming off as I share Jesus with my co-workers?
If I talk with that person about how they hurt me, will they see me differently?
If I share my hopes and dreams, will they think I’m selfish?
Will my supervisor treat me differently if I share my struggles?
How many likes or followers might I pick up if I post this on social media?
This is the struggle of the Pharisee’s so often in the Scriptures. And it’s what Jesus is so critical of.
They are praying loud and lengthy prayers. They are fasting a lot and often. They are tithing 10% of everything they own. But they are doing all of it with the undertones of what will people think of me
Right things with the wrong motive.
What’s your motive? To be well liked? To be approved of by a parent? To be admired by your boss? To be well-thought of by your in-laws
Western thought says be as popular as possible. Jesus rejects popularity. He wants us only to be popular with him
Pete Scazzero: Freedom comes when we no longer need to be somebody special in other people’s eyes
Western formation means living for the approval of many. Christlike formation means living for the approval of one.
2. Be Great vs. Reject Greatness
This feels counterintuitive. Who of us think it’s a good idea to reject greatness
We’ve been taught since the time we are little that we are going to do great things in the world. So we often seek that out as the ultimate sign of “We’ve made it.”
The greatness of our lives is often the way we measure ourselves. Look at all I’ve done and accomplished
The danger here is not doing good things on the earth. The danger is our audience and our motive
Again, Western thought loves greatness. Be great in your job. Live in great cities. Have a great career.
The problem is Jesus did not function like that:
Jesus could have come down as a fully grown man, full of splendor into the most significant cities of his time. But instead, he was born in a manger, to a poor family where they had to flee as fugitives and refugees. Remember it’s asked, what good can come from Nazareth?
Jesus could have gone to the great synogauges of his day and picked the 12 best and brightest students of his time. He didn’t. He picked uneducated fishermen with little to no social advantage. He didn’t pick Barthalamew because he had special connections to the higher ups of his day
Even Jesus ministry was not considered great by our standards. He had more of an ambulance ministry rather than overthrowing the evil political, military, and economic structures of his day. Remember, he heals the woman with the issue of blood (a social outcast) before he heals Jairus daughter (a ruler in the synogogue). Then when he dies, nearly everyone leaves him. That’s not what we consider great.
What Jesus defines of great is not more power, influence, or impact. It’s service. It’s humility. He says if you want to be great in the kingdom of God, serve those around you.
It’s an utterly different definition of what greatness is.
To that end, I want to offer two questions to ask ourselves if we are being formed more by the West’s definition of greatness or by Christ’s definition of greatness:
When are my plans and ambitions legitimately for the glory of God, and when do they cross the line into my own desire for greatness?
You may want to do great things for the kingdom. That’s great. But has that desire ever crossed into selfish ambition? Do you want your name to be great or Jesus’ name to be great?
What opportunities has God placed before me to be lowly with the lowly?
A sure-fire way to fight the temptation of selfish greatness is to serve others. Do something unexpected for your spouse. Make a meal for your roommate. By a coffee for your coworker. Who’s hurting around you that you be with in this moment? That’s what Jesus calls greatness.
3. Be Successful vs. Reject Success-ism
Success might be the world’s most universal religion. So the question for us is do we use Jesus to get to success or use our success for the sake of Jesus.
Western formation screams bigger is always better. Bigger profits, bigger influence, and bigger impact.
Again, this is not how Jesus defines success. Rather, Success is becoming the person God call you to become, and doing what God calls you to do - in his way, and according to his timetable
Notice, Christlike success is not about results. Christlike success is more about who you are becoming
Peter thought that Jesus on the cross meant this movement is a failure. How could we be successful with this whole thing if Jesus dies. The reality of the resurrection had not sunk in yet
Before Jesus’ ministry begins, “this is my son with whom I am well-pleased.” — this is success in the kingdom of God
I think of Mother Theresa, not one of us would think she was unsuccessful but think about her circumstances
We know it for her but we often don’t believe it for ourselves because western thought has formed us to believe that if we aren’t successful at xyz, we have failed.
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