Title: CHRIST-WIRED
Focus: Christ wires Christians to be what God intends us to be
Function: To move people to turn to the Christ for re-wiring.
Text: Luke 9:18-22
Heidelberg Catechism: L.D. 12
We all are wired. Right now I am wired or hooked up to a microphone attached to my clothes. You may not be hooked up to a microphone, but you, too, are wired. Those of you who have computers are most likely wired to the Internet; and if you have a cell phone, you are wired or connected to a satellite.
As you can see, the verb “wire” has many different meanings. For example, when an electrician hooks up electric wires to your house and to all your appliances in the house, you can truly say: “We are wired.” Or, if you are a public speaker, and you are ready to give your speech, people may say: “Wow, that lady is wired!”
Our daughter, Jessica, is a professional nurse. When I hear her talk about her work, and when I sense the passion she puts in that work, I say, “Wow! How neat that God has wired or gifted and shaped her for that profession!” So “to be wired” can mean a lot of different things.
This afternoon I want you to go home with this powerful biblical teaching: Anyone who belongs to Christ is Christ-wired. In fact, Jesus Christ wires people to be what God intends for us to be.
In Genesis 1: 27 we read that God created man—that is Adam and Eve—in “his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” God wired his image to Adam and all his offspring. That image of God reminded Adam that he must “mirror” or reflect the glory and majesty of God in his life. God, then, wired Adam and Eve, and thus also us, as image bearers called to reflect and shine forth the glory of God in our world.
I like what the Bible teacher tells us in L.D. 3 that God “created man good and in his own image, that is, in true righteousness and holiness, so that he might truly know God his creator, love him with all his heart, and live with him in eternal happiness for his praise and glory.” God wired us to KNOW him, to LOVE him, and to LIVE with him for evermore. That’s the duty or office or calling of every human being!
But through the devil’s temptation, and through Adam and Eve’s disobedience, sparks started to fly: sin, misery, and death entered our lives. They shattered the image of God. Like a bolt of lightning short-circuiting all the wires and appliances in a house, so the arrow of sin ruined and distorted the image of God within us.
Now when a flash of lightning causes a short-circuit in our homes, we call the electrician; she will re-wire the house. And voila! The house is rewired and restored. But who can rewire the shattered image of God in Adam and in you and me? Who can re-wire us in such a way that we become what God wants us to be?
Ah, here’s the good news! Jesus Christ wires us, so that we may be, and become more so, what God intends for us to be.
In Luke
9:18-22 we hear the Lord Jesus raise a question to his disciples. They have withdrawn
to a place where Jesus could pray in private. It appears that the disciples are
talking about the identity of Jesus: Who is he? What must we think of him?
Jesus picks up on that thought, and he asks his disciples: “Who do the
crowds say I am?” Note that Jesus moves from the general to the
particular, for after the disciples tell him what the people in general are
saying, the Lord Jesus asks his disciples: “But what about you? Who do
you say I am?”
Jesus
is a master teacher: By moving from the general (the crowd) to the particular
(his disciples), Jesus gets a good feel whether he is getting through with his
teaching and preaching of the Kingdom of heaven. The multitude has different
notions about Jesus: “He must be John the Baptist, raised from the dead!”
“Oh, no,” others say, “He is Elijah having come back from heaven!” “No,
no,” others in the crowd say, “he is one of the prophets of long ago.
One who has come back to life.”
They all trip over Jesus’ identity. But now the real test: “What
about you, my disciples? Who do you say I am?”
Quick as a cat catching a mouse, so Peter jumps up and says (for all to hear) “You are the Christ of God!” Bulls eye! Peter has it right. Jesus is the Christ of God: God the Father has sent Jesus on a rescue mission to re-wire or restore the image of God in people, and to renew all of creation from the ravages of sin. Jesus is the Christ of God.
The religious leaders, however, taught the people that the Christ is a political Savior, whose coming will be preceded by the O.T. prophet Elijah, doing awesome wonders in the name of God. The crowd is longing for the Christ or Messiah to restore Israel to its glory days of King David and Solomon. Get rid of the Romans, restore the economy, and let there be rest in the land. But Jesus responds to his disciples with a stern warning NOT to tell the people yet that he is indeed the Christ of God. Why not?
Listen: “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” You see? Whereas the crowd imagines that the Christ (whom Jesus also refers to as “the Son of Man”) will use the sword of miracles and military power to overthrow the enemies and assume his throne in Jerusalem, Jesus defines his Christ-mission in terms of three parts:
The crowd is not ready to hear this message. But Jesus prepares his disciples to embrace his three-fold mission as the Christ of God: prophet, priest, and king.
The Bible
teacher in L.D. 12 has picked up on this teaching found in Scripture, and now
asks us: “Why is Jesus called ‘Christ’ meaning ‘anointed.’”? Here’s the
answer coming to us as an echo from Scripture: “Because he has been ordained
by God the Father and has been anointed with the Holy Spirit to be our chief prophet and teacher
who perfectly reveals to us the secret counsel and will of God for our
deliverance; our only
high priest who has set us free by the one sacrifice of his body, and
who continually pleads our cause with the Father; and our eternal king who
governs us by his Word and Spirit, and who guards us and keeps us in the
freedom he has won for us.”
Did
you notice that in carrying out his office as prophet, priest, and king, the
Lord Jesus perfectly reflects the image of God? In Hebrews 1:3 we read that “The
Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being,
sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification
for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” And
by fulfilling his three-fold task as the Christ, Jesus is now at work in us—by
means of his Word and Spirit—to re-wire or restore the image of God in us.
That’s why the Bible teacher in L.D. 12 comes to you and me and asks: “But
why are you called a Christian?”
The answer shows a direct connection between Jesus and all who believe on him. Listen: “Because by faith I am a member of Christ and so I share in his anointing.” In other words, believers in Christ are wired, connected to him. This happens because of the invisible, mysterious work of God’s Spirit—a work that becomes visible in our baptism and daily walk with Christ. And that work of the Spirit becomes public knowledge as we declare or profess our faith in Jesus.
Being wired
to Christ, however, comes with a call or task. It’s the task of reflecting the
image of God in us. How does that take place? Listen again to the Bible teacher
in L.D. 12: (Why are you called a Christian?). “Because by faith I am a
member of Christ and so I share in his anointing. I am anointed to confess his
name, to present myself to him as a living sacrifice of thanks, to strive with
a good conscience against sin and the devil in this life, and afterward to
reign with Christ over all creation for all eternity.”
As Christ has a three-fold task to reflect the glory of God perfectly, so believers in Christ have a three-fold task in life: it’s to reflect the glory or image of God: We are prophets: teaching, proclaiming, and helping the world and one another to see the revealed will of God by confessing his name—that is, all his works, splendor and greatness.
We are priests: NO, not to pay for our own sins. (Only Jesus can do that; and that’s an accomplished fact). We are priests in that we offer ourselves as living sacrifices, that is we present ourselves as servants of Christ and live a life of praise or gratitude.
And we are kings and queens. That means mostly that we are engaged in royal battles against sin and the devil, against our own sinful human nature, and the sinful impulses of the world around us. Part of our task today is to be engaged in spiritual warfare. That’s part of our three-fold office as prophet, priest, and king. Spiritual warfare, however, also comes with royal benefits in that we may reign with Christ, already today—by resting in his accomplished work, by praying with him that his kingdom may come—more and more. And once Christ the King of king has come at the end of time, then we shall reign with him over all creation for all eternity.
Tell me: are you Christ-wired?
Do you know Jesus? Do you embrace him as the Christ: as chief teacher/prophet revealing God’s perfect will to you and me? Do you receive him every day as your only high priest, who not only prays and intercedes for you and me, but also presents himself to God the Father as an atoning sacrifice (as a perfect Lamb), cleansing us from all sins, and thus making us right with God?
Do you live under Christ’s lordship? And do you serve him as co-heir, co-ruler, as an instrument through whom the rule of Christ may come more and more?
Remember: Anyone who belongs to Christ is
Christ-wired. Live that way! In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.