Today Jo shares how God used a dead falcon to make her long for new life.

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Reading: Revelation 21:5-6

Jo De Blois is Chief of Staff at Puritan Reformed Seminary.

I often look back on my story and wish I could change some words, some lines, and even chapters. In fact there are a few chapters I wish I could rip out and shred, but I’ve tried and they won’t budge. How can I change the past?

That’s why this quote from C.S Lewis encouraged me in my own storychanging journey: “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”

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Reading: Revelation 21:3-4

INTRODUCTION

The self-improvement market size is expected to reach $14 billion by 2025, with millennials and women being the most dedicated to personal change. Millennials are willing to spend $300 per month on personal development and women make up 75% of self-development book readers. Self-help book sales have doubled since 2013 and are still growing at 11% year-on-year.

People want to change? Do Christians? I would hope that we can outdo the world in our desire to change and our hope of change. And yet, we are often disappointed by our lack of desire for change and our lack of success in changing, leading us to ask How can I increase my desire for and rate of change?

BACKGROUND

Paul was being attacked and undermined by Judaizing false teachers in the church of Corinth. In verses 1-4, Paul argued that his letter of recommendation (the Corinthians’ lives) was far superior to his opponents’ recommendations (from the Jerusalem religious elite).

In verses 5-11, he proved that his New Covenant ministry is far more glorious than the Judaizers’ Old Covenant ministry.

In verses 12-18 he demonstrates how his New Covenant ministry is far more transformative than the Judaizers old Covenant ministry.

Paul draws a contrast between the minimal kind of change Moses could offer with the maximal kind of change Jesus offers. Contrast language is found in verses 13, 14, 16.

How is New Covenant change better than Old Covenant change?

1. LESS CHRIST MEANS LESS CHANGE (12-15)

Less Confidence

Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses (12-13a)

The Old Covenant was characterized by fear, hesitancy, caution, and reserve. It’s the timid toddler retreating to the merry-go-round instead of riding the rollercoaster.

Less Sight

…not like Moses who would put a veil over his face that the Israelites might not gaze… (13). For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted… (14). Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts (15)

God revealed enough to the Israelites to enable saving faith in the coming Messiah. They could see enough of Jesus to be saved. However, by wearing a veil to cover his shining face after seeing God’s glory, Moses was also communicating that while they saw enough truth to save them, they could not see enough to satisfy them. They could see the shadowy outline of Christ’s glorious salvation but not it’s full glory. Paul is astonished at anyone who would choose such limited sight when unlimited sight was now on offer. Why choose veiled over unveiled, obscurity over clarity, vague over specific, indirect over direct?

Less Time

That the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end [nullified] (13).

However glorious Moses’ face was after seeing God’s glory, it faded. Initially impressive and inspiring, it gradually dulled, disappeared, and died. Just as Old Covenant religion, however initially impressive, had an expiry date, so Old Covenant change gradually blanched and evaporated

Less Results

But their minds were hardened (14).

The heart-veil resulted in mind-stone. Not only did the good change pale but bad change deepened when the Israelites did not see Christ and even refused to see him for who he was when physically among them. However outwardly moral, their minds were hardened like epoxy and numbed like local anesthetic. Spiritual hardening can result from rebellion, legalism, or self-sufficiency.

CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY

If less Christ means less change, no Christ means no change. No spiritual confidence, no spiritual sight, no spiritual durability, no spiritual change. We can spend multiple dollars, endless time, and all our effort on change but without Christ any change is ultimately for the worse.

What difference does more Christ make?

2. MORE CHRIST MEANS MORE CHANGE (16-18)

More Confidence

Since we have such a hope, we are very bold (12).

Christ gives boldness to approach God (Heb. 4:16), boldness to ask God for change, boldness to live a changed life, boldness to offer Christ-centered change to others. We have tremendous confidence in Christ as our change-maker. We’ve taken off the training wheels and we’re riding an electric bike up hills.

More Clarity

But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed (16). Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (17). And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord (18).

When Moses turned to the Lord, he removed his veil, but when he turned away from the Lord he put his veil on. He was teaching that turning to God removes the veil, but turning away from the Lord puts a veil on our hearts. Paul’s echoing Moses’ message: Turning to the Lord Jesus jettisons the veil and jet-fuels change. More sight of Christ means more Spirit, more truth, more freedom, and more glory. A clear Christ means clear truth which means clear change. ‘Beholding’ means seeing as in a mirror. The mirror changes more than the veil but there’s still something between us and Jesus. Not until we enjoy the beatific vision, the direct sight of Christ, will we be like him (1 John 3:2).

More Lasting

…are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another (18)

Transformation through truth does not dull but brightens, doesn’t fade in glory but increases in glory, doesn’t regress but progresses, is not temporary but permanent. Christ-sight produces Christ-like. I cannot change into Brad Pritt by looking at Brad Pritt, but I can change into Christ-likeness by looking at Christ. From seeing glory we become glory. It’s caused by seeing glory and results in glory being seen.

More Extensive

For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (18)

The Old Covenant majored more on outside change than inside change. Less or little sight of Christ also meant change was largely outward and often accompanied by inner hardening. But this change is wrought by the Spirit of the Lord on our spirits. It’s therefore not just outside but inside.

CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY

John Piper said: “This text is one of the most important in the Bible in shaping how I understand both personal sanctification and personal evangelism.” The only way to increase our desire for change and our rate of change is to increase the sight of Christ’s glory in our lives. That will not only change us faster but evangelize better too as others see the glory of Christ in us and through us. Let’s outdo the world in our desire for change and rate of change so that they want to change like this too.

SUMMARY

PRAYER

Change-maker, make me Christ-like through Christ-sight.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What ways do people try to change?

2. How/what have you tried to change in the past and failed?

3. Why should we expect to change as Christians?

4. How has God changed you more through seeing more of Jesus?

5. What are you asking God to change in your life? What role does Christ have in that?

6. How will you help others to change with this message?

PDF of Sermon Notes

INTRODUCTION

I have an eating disorder….and so do you. We all do to one degree or another. Every single person alive has an eating disorder. I’m going to prove that to you today but I also want to share the cure with you. We begin by distinguishing between appetite and hunger.

Appetite is a person’s general desire to eat food and dictates how much food we want to eat as well as the type of food we feel like eating. Hunger is our body’s biological response to a lack of food. It occurs when the body recognizes that it needs more food and sends a signal to the brain to eat. Eating disorders usually result from disorders of appetite or hunger or both. For example:

• Someone has an appetite even when their body lacks signs of hunger (leading to over-eating)
• Someone lacks an appetite even when their body has signs of hunger (leading to under-eating)
• Someone lacks both appetite and hunger (again leading to under-eating)

Hunger is largely physiological but appetite is affected by many factors: physical, social, sensory, cultural, cognitive, habitual, geographical, economic, historical, etc.

A healthy and balanced appetite and hunger is a gift of God. It means everything is combining to give us reasonable and appropriate desires and cravings for food and a satisfaction with it. Only Adam and Eve experienced that, and only before the fall of humanity into sin. After that, every human being has suffered with disordered eating of one kind or another.

However, as with every part of God’s curse, this part is also ultimately intended to be a blessing as it sends us to God for healing, not just physical but spiritual healing. In John 6:22-35, we see Jesus addressing and curing disordered eating. He basically says to everyone, “You have an eating disorder that I alone can cure.” What is Jesus’ cure for our eating disorder?

NB: Like all mental health problems, not all eating disorders are only the result of personal sin. They can be in whole or in part a physiological or biological problem.

What eating disorder do I have?

1. JESUS RE-ORDERS OUR PRIORITIES (26-27)

The day after the ‘Feeding of the 5,000′ the crowd searched for Jesus, eventually located him across the lake in Capernaum, and asked how he’d got there (22-25).

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal” (26-27).

They prioritized the physical and temporary

The crowd’s priority was food for their bodies, and viewed Jesus primarily as someone who could fill their bellies. Hence his solemn rebuke: “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves” (26). It wasn’t even his miraculous signs they wanted to see; they just wanted food. It wasn’t “Fill our eyes with your miracles, but fill our stomaches with food.” Their whole day was filled with food-finding, prompting Jesus to say, “Do not work for the food that perishes.” Jesus was not forbidding working in order to get money for food to live, but making life all about that and primarily about that. Why? Because it doesn’t last. Our health doesn’t last, our working ability doesn’t last, our money doesn’t last, our food doesn’t last, our being filled doesn’t last.

Jesus prioritizes the spiritual and eternal

Jesus reverses their priorities: “Work…for the food that endures to eternal life which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Make spiritual food your greatest concern, focus, passion. Why? Because it lasts; it lasts longer than physical food, it lasts longer than life itself, and lasts even into eternity. It is non-perishable. It has no expiry date. Get your greatest satisfaction from Jesus. Jesus was telling the crowd, “Seek me by all means but seek me for the right reasons. I’m not here primarily to satisfy your bodily appetites but your spiritual appetite. God the Father has made clear that I am his way of filling up hungry humanity.”

CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY

Let’s admit our disordered priorities. “I confess that I have disordered appetites, that I prioritize my body over my soul, physical food over spiritual food, the temporary over the eternal. I try to satisfy my spiritual needs with sensual pleasures and it leaves me spiritually anorexic or obese. I confess that I spend an hour thinking about bodily needs for every minute on spiritual needs (Deut. 8:3).

Let’s get our priorities from Jesus. Jesus can re-order our appetites and therefore our priorities. He can give us healthy appetites and satisfy them with imperishable food. Just as our body is composed of what we put into it, so our soul can be re-constituted by changing our inputs. Jesus can change what we desire and how much we desire. He can take away or give control over harmful desires as well as give us new healthy desires.

What do I do first?

2. JESUS RE-ORDERS OUR WORK (28-29)

They started with what they could do

Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” (28).

Jesus had just called them to prioritize the spiritual and eternal over the physical and temporary. They clearly got the message, at least part of it, because they are now prioritizing the works of God over their own work for food. But they missed a critical part of the message. Jesus had said that he would GIVE them imperishable food. They respond by asking, “What do we do to earn it. They are wanting the work of God instead of working for food, but they still think they must work to do the works of God, rather than simply receive it by faith.

Jesus started with what he does

Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (29).

“You want to talk about doing the works of God, start by believing the work of God.” Don’t start with your work but with God’s. Look at God’s work in sending his Son and put your faith in that work of God, that Sent One. Before you work, God must work. God works so that you work. God’s first work is faith in Jesus. You can’t start any good work until God starts his good work in you.

CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY

Let’s admit our wrong starting point. “I confess that I start with myself, my work, my deeds. I confess that my focus is often, what I must do to please God, to work for God. I confess that this wears me out, leaves me feeling guilty, depresses me, and leaves me anxious because I can never do enough and nothing I do is good enough.

Let’s start where God starts. God starts with his work in sending Jesus then his work of giving faith in Jesus. Both are God’s works, both are miraculous works, both come before any work we can do for God. God has done all the work that needs to be done and calls us to put our faith in his work. Faith is the opposite of work. It’s resting in the work of someone else. That’s a beautiful starting point to any day.

How satisfying is this?

3. JESUS RE-ORDERS OUR SATISFACTION (30-35)

They tried satisfaction through the senses

So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat’” (30-31).

We’re back to square one again here. They ask Jesus to do another food miracle. They are back to trying to get satisfaction through their eyes and their mouths. Moses did it for our fathers, so why can’t you do it for us?

Jesus offers satisfaction through their spirit

“It wasn’t Moses but God who gave you bread from heaven thousands of years ago,” Jesus corrected them. And the same thing is true today, “My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (32-33). Jesus says, “I am heaven’s life-giving food, enough to feed the whole world, should the whole world want it.

At last they seem to get it, “Sir give us this bread always” (34). They recognize their hunger and the only one who can fully and forever satisfy them. Jesus doesn’t keep them waiting any longer but declares plainly how he fully satisfies the deepest needs of humanity. Jesus said to them,

“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (35). Coming to Jesus and believing in Jesus are two ways of saying the same thing. Both result in satisfaction that no amount of physical food can ever offer.

CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY

Let’s confess our unsatisfied appetites. “I confess I’ve tried to satisfy my heart through my eyes and mouth and I’m as empty and hungry as I’ve ever been. Sometimes I just feel sick.

Let’s find our greatest satisfaction in Jesus. God the Father has given us true bread, the bread of truth from heaven to this world and offered his life-giving Son to us. Have we begged, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Whatever other disappointments we face in this world, this is true: insofar as we believe in Jesus and come to Jesus we will be satisfied by Jesus. Like bread, Jesus is necessary food, a basic staple of life, not a luxury. Like bread, Jesus is universal food, suitable to every culture, palette, and digestive system. Like bread, Jesus is daily food, not rare or occasional but an everyday food. Like bread, Jesus must be taken inside if we are to get any benefit from it.

SUMMARY

PRAYER

Lord I confess all my disorders. Re-order them by giving us this bread always.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Which parts of ourselves and of our world have escaped God’s curse upon sin which which parts have suffered from God’s curse?

2. Where do you see disorder in your eating or drinking?

3. How has Jesus changed your appetites?

4. What damage do we do to ourselves if we start with our work and not God’s?

5. How has Jesus satisfied you?

6. What areas of life remain that still need satisfied and how can Jesus meet that?

PDF of Sermon Notes

What book should I read next? Read the Book of You next because it will make you read the Book of God too.

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Reading: 2 Corinthians 13:5

Hey storychangers, how much of your story do you want to change? Do you want minimal change or maximal change? If you want minimal change, you are definitely listening to the wrong podcast. Because we believe that The StoryChanger changes our whole stories with his whole story so that we become holy in our whole story. If you want that for yourself, keep listening.

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Reading: Hebrews 10:16-17