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Sermon on Imitating Jesus
Who do you imitate? Do you like the idea of imitating? What, if anything, puts you off to imitating someone great?
Ephesians 5:1–2, Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Philippians 3:17, Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.
1 Corinthians 4:16 – I urge you, then, be imitators of me.
1 Corinthians 11:1 – Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
1 Thessalonians 1:6 – And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit,
1 Thessalonians 2:14 – For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews,
2 Thessalonians 3:7 – For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you,
2 Thessalonians 3:9 – It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate.
Hebrews 6:12 – so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Hebrews 13:7 – Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
3 John 11 – Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.
Romans 8:29 – For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Romans 12:2 – Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
1 Peter 1:14-16 Because you are children who obey God, don’t live the kind of lives you once lived. Once you lived to satisfy your desires because you didn’t know any better. But because the God who called you is holy, you must be holy in every aspect of your life. Scripture says, “Be holy, because I am holy.”
Imitating mature believers makes a lot of sense. They have imitated Jesus and give us a picture of what it means to be like Him. But how do we imitate Jesus, or the Father, for that matter, when they are perfect and can obviously rely upon their deity to accomplish everything? Here are some facts that will help us imitate Jesus.
- Jesus had to learn (Luke 2:40; Hebrews 5:8f) and did not know certain information (like when he was returning, Mark 13:32), and at times was surprised (Matthew 8:10). [So, when he does evidence supernatural knowledge (like in John 4 where he knows the woman at the well has had 5 husbands, etc.), it must have been revealed to him as it was to other prophets, through the Spirit.]
- Jesus acknowledges doing his miracles (especially demon exorcisms) by the Spirit (Matthew 12:28).
- Jesus proclamation of the gospel is by the Spirit (Matthew 12:18)
- Philippians 2:5-11 tells us that Jesus “emptied” himself, and we know it is impossible to stop being God and thus to empty yourself of deity, so if Jesus was in the form of God, as Paul says, he was God, but emptied himself, not of his deity, but of his exercise of that deity at his own discretion. He humbled himself, yielding his will to the Father’s will.
- This perspective makes sense of admonitions to imitate Jesus. We can’t imitate being God but we can imitate being dependent, as he was, on the Spirit. And Jesus said, ““Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12)
About the Author Randall Johnson
A full-time pastor since 1979, Randall originally graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary (ThM) in 1979 and from Reformed Theological Seminary (DMin) in 1998. He is married with four grown children and a pile of epic grandchildren.
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