Likeness by Pastor Abidan Shah

LIKENESS by Pastor Shah, Clearview Church, Henderson

Introduction: How many of ya’ll remember telling your parents – “You just don’t understand.” How many of ya’ll have heard those same words from your kids? Why do we say that? Because we think that our struggles are so unique that unless others step into our shoes, they’ll never understand what we’re going through. It’s not just parents and kids who do this but employees think that their employer doesn’t understand and employers think that their employees don’t understand. The husband thinks that his wife doesn’t understand and the wife thinks that her husband doesn’t understand. I love the Peanuts cartoon. In this one, Lucy is at her psychiatric booth and Charlie Brown tells her that he has deep feelings of depression – “What can I do about this?” Lucy in her typical manner says – “Snap out of it! 5 cents please.” I would say that she didn’t understand! Today’s message is to help us see that even if people close to us fail to understand us, there is one person who always understands us and his name is Jesus. The message is titled “Likeness” in our series called MIND (RE)SET from Philippians 2.

Philippians 2 5Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, andcoming in the likeness of men. 8And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient tothe point ofdeath, even the death of the cross. 9Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11andthatevery tongue should confess that Jesus ChristisLord, to the glory of God the Father.

Question: Do you feel that people don’t understand you? Do you often say, “No one knows what I am going through?” Do you know Jesus? Are you saved?

Context: As you know and for the benefit of those who are here for the first time, the goal of this series is for us to have the mind of Christ, to have what Paul commanded us in verse 5“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” Sometimes when people hear that we are to be like Christ, they say things like – “C’mon, Jesus was God. I am just a human being. He was perfect. I am not. Jesus could not sin. I have a sin nature. How can I have the same mind as Christ? We are very different!” Let’s stop here and clarify a few things. By the way, we will go deep for a few minutes:

Yes, Jesus was fully God in his incarnation. To stop any of his attributes would be to stop being God. We covered that in the 1^stpart of our message “TRUE ESTEEM.”
Jesus was also fully Man in his incarnation. He was 2 distinct natures (divine and human) coming together in 1 person. We also covered some of that in the 2^ndpart of the message “TRUE ESTEEM.”

There’s something more we need to understand about Jesus’ humanity:

3. Jesus was essentially humanjust like Adam before Adam sinned. Question:Was Adam a full-fledged human being before he sinned? Yes.Genesis 1:27“So God created man in His ownimage; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”Jesus was just like Adam in his humanity. Can we draw a connection between Adam and Jesus?Romans 5:14“…Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.” Another Question:Did Adam have a sin nature before he sinned? No. He did not have an earthly father to pass down the sin nature to him. Neither did Jesus. Keep in mind that Adam was the created son of God, as noted by Luke 3:38and Jesus was the only begotten eternal Son of God. Both Adam and Jesus were internally innocentand both of them were externallytempted. While Adam fell into sin, Jesus did not. By the way, Jesus was much more than just Adam.Unlike Adam, Jesus was fully God and hence he could not sin.

4. How are we like Jesus then? While Adam and Jesus were essentially human, we are commonly human. We are the product of the union of our earthly fathers and mothers and we carry the sin nature in us. David says in Psalm 51:5“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.”Paul affirms in Ephesians 2:3that we were“by nature children of wrath…” Hence, there is a difference between our temptation and Jesus’ temptation. Jesus was tempted only from the outside and we are tempted from the inside and outside. Nonetheless, propensity to temptation and sin does not make us human. Being created in the image of God with a body and a mind makes us human.

Someone might stillsay, “At the end of the day, Jesus is just essentially human without the ability to sin but we are commonly human. There is still a difference. How can he truly understand what we go through being born in sin?” Have you ever wondered why Jesus spent nine months inside his mother’s womb, was born, grew up, lived for 33 some years before he went to the cross? If his only purpose was to come to die for us, he could have dropped out of the sky as a full-grown human being and made his way to the cross or he could have grown up overnight! Why all this time of living among us? Hebrews 2:17“Therefore, in all things He had to be made likeHisbrethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertainingto God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”

Are you hungry?Jesus understands hunger. He spent 40 days and 40 nights fasting in the wilderness.
Are you thirsty? Jesus understands thirst. From the cross he cried, “I thirst.”
Have you been belittled? Jesus understands. When Philip told Nathaniel that he had found the Messiah, John 1:46Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Are you exhausted?Jesus understands being tired. Mark 6:31And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.
Are you homeless? Luke 9 57Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, thatsomeone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.” 58And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the airhavenests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to layHishead.”
Are you grieving? Jesus understands grief. When he saw a funeral possession of a man who was the only son of a widow, it says in Luke 7:13“He had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’”Several times it says that Jesus had compassion on people who were in grief and pain. In fact, Isaiah calls him in Isaiah 53:3“A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”
Are you angry? Jesus understands anger. When the Pharisees tried to use the sickness of a man to trap Jesus into healing him on the Sabbath, Jesus was angry. Listen to Mark 3:5And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched itout, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.
Have you dealt with abuse? Matthew 18 5Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.6 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
Are you having family trouble?John 7 3His brothers therefore said to Him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing. 4For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” 5For even His brothers did not believe in Him.
Have you been disappointed? John 6:66“From thattimemany of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.”
Are you afraid for your life? John 7:1After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him.
Are you lonely and feel betrayed? Jesus understands. One of his own betrayed him with a kiss and Mark 14:50“Then they all forsook Him and fled.”
Have you been falsely accused? Matt. 26 59Now the chief priests, the elders, and all the council sought false testimony against Jesus to put Him to death,60but found none. Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none.
Are you in physical pain? John 19 1So then Pilate took Jesus and scourgedHim.2And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put iton His head…” And then they crucified him between two thieves.