From Rags to Riches

Jim Davis

Isaiah 64:1-7

I do business over the phone daily with people I have never met. I talk to same people two or three times a week on a weekly basis. I have done business with them for three years, but I have never personally met them. I often wonder what they look like. If I met them could I recognize them?  Have you ever tried to imagine what a person looks like that you have never met? Have you ever been on a blind date?  I’m not against blind dates. I met my wife on a blind date. However, blind dates leave you wondering—just exactly what does this person look like.

Israel had difficulty recognizing Jesus as the Messiah. God spoke to them for hundreds of years through the prophets about the coming Messiah. The Jews conjured up ideas in their minds of what the Messiah and his kingdom would be like. Yet, Jesus didn’t fit into all the things they had imagined about the Messiah. They had a hard time recognizing Jesus.

John 1:10-13
10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. NIV

John the Baptist came to Jesus asking, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" (Matt 11:3 NIV) John is in prison when he sends his disciples to ask Jesus this question. It was just before Herod beheaded him. It is almost as if John lifts his head from the chopping block to ask, “Are you the ONE?” He had been preaching Jesus, but he was confused about Jesus. The Messiah and his kingdom were shaping up much different than John had imagined. He had all these ideas about Jesus that he expected to become a reality as he progressed in his ministry. But what he imagined wasn’t taking shape and he began to doubt.

Nicodemus came to Jesus in his search asking, "How can a man be born when he is old?" (John 3:4 NIV) He knew Jesus was from God but he had trouble reconciling what Jesus taught to what he expected the Messiah to be. He spent all his life devoted to religious duties. Now he is trying to reconcile being born again with what he has been doing all his life and something doesn’t add up. The devout rich young ruler came to Jesus inquiring, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Luke 18:18 NIV) Once an expert in religious law asks Jesus, "Teacher," he asked, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Luke 10:25 NIV)  Surprisingly, we see the devout, the religious and the sincere—we see the young and the old coming to Jesus with their questions about salvation. The questions reveal their difficulty reconciling their thoughts about the Messiah with Jesus. 

It was like going out on a blind date. You are told many things about the person you are supposed to meet for the first time. You have created an image of the person you are about to meet in your mind. When you meet the person you have difficulty reconciling what you have been told and what you have imagined with the person. 

These questions came from the depth of their being. John the Baptist came questioning the identity of Jesus even though he had been proclaiming Jesus as the long awaited Messiah. The rich young ruler had sought salvation from early childhood, yet he questioned Jesus about eternal life. He seemed, at least for the moment, disappointed with Jesus and Jesus’ response to his question. Nicodemus was a respected senior ruler in the religious hierarchy, but he was questioning his need, yea, the possibility of an old man being born again. He was confused as to how an old man could be born again. The expert in religious law continued to engage in debate over eternal life with the master of the universe. He was having trouble reconciling his theology with Jesus as the Messiah. 

The Bible is full of stories of those who doubted their way into a relationship with God. If a person is truly seeking God, it is the only way to come to him. Some came to Jesus seeking answers that would only prove what they believed to be right. Others came to Jesus seeking understanding as they doubted their perception of their world, themselves and Jesus. The apostle Paul writes that he was afraid he was on the wrong path (Galatians 2:2-3). He conferred with the leaders in Jerusalem to make sure he was on the right path. Amazingly, he had been preaching the gospel for over 14 years, yet he wanted to confirm what he believed. It is never too late to make sure you are on the right path.

Many today are just as lost in the religious confusion as those Jesus met 2000 years ago. The past few decades have been spent revamping the church for growth. Some are looking backward to recapture the spirit of the past. Others are looking forward to the church of tomorrow to reach the next generation. I can only wonder—have we lost sight of the present—have we lost sight of Christ. 

Only God Can Give Us Growth

Maybe it is time to look beyond the church and rediscover the Christ of the gospels. Christian lives of the first century were built upon the gospel teaching about Jesus found in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The book of Acts and the remainder of the Bible reveal what happens when people believe in the gospel stories of Christ. The books of the New Testament which come after the gospels are largely an interpretation of the gospels. They reveal the impact of the gospels on the lives of those seeking Christ. A study of the church of the first century doesn’t begin in Acts; it begins with the gospel as revealed in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Something is wrong with my tomato plants. I can’t get them to bear fruit. I tried all last summer to nurture them into bearing tomatoes. I cultivated the soil, planted the seed, watered my efforts, but no tomatoes. There is something I am missing; I may not be in touch with the ONE who makes things grow. My efforts in growing a garden makes be feel like the Corinthians who struggled to grow in Christ. 

I had beautiful vines, but no fruit.  I tried stimulating the plants to bear fruit, but my efforts were sad. I grew up on a farm as a young kid. My dad never seemed to have any trouble getting his garden to grow. He always had a big fruit bearing garden. A family of seven always had plenty of fresh vegetables throughout the summer. We always had plenty to preserve in jars to carry us through the winter. But I haven’t been able to grow fruit bearing tomato plants. I haven’t given up. I bought some new plants just this week to plant and try it again in this New Year. I think I am smarter now, I think I have learned what won’t work. But this doesn’t necessarily translate me into a first class gardener. It doesn’t mean I know what will work. You can have the best tools, good soil, good seed and plenty of water, but it doesn’t make you a skillful gardener. 

1 Corinthians 3:1-9
3:1 Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly — mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? 4 For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men? 

5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe — as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. 9 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. NIV

The Corinthians exercised their God given spiritual gifts. But there was no growth. God was not in it. God had definitely saved them. Paul did not write the Corinthians to tell them how to be saved—they were already saints. He wrote to them to interpret how the gospel was to impact their lives—how it all applied to daily life. (1 Corinthians 3:1-4; The Bible Exposition Commentary. Copyright (c) 1989 by SP Publications, Inc.) Only God can give us growth.

The salvation God offers reaches beyond human potential. The last couple of decades have been spent restructuring the church for growth. We have sought to embrace the right church, the right theology, an inspiring way of worship, an inspiring minister to make it all relevant. We have used very gifted people to make it happen. We embrace Bible study, church attendance, church programs, small groups; we restructure the church to accommodate the things we believe we need. However, at the end of the day many are asking the same question Nicodemus ask, how can I be born again?  Or we are asking the question the young ruler ask, “What good thing must I do to have eternal life? In our darkest hour we may even ask what John the Baptist ask, “Is this real, or should we look for something else? (Jim Davis paraphrase.) 

How do we bring about a spiritual revival? Making use of spiritual gifts didn’t bring a revival to Corinth. Just reading your Bible to gain knowledge won’t make you a Christian. The Jews thought obedience to the law was enough. They knew the law, but it couldn’t save them—it could not justify them. They couldn’t live up to its demands. It left Nicodemus wondering how an old man could be born again. It left the rich young ruler doubting his salvation. They saw with their eyes and heard with their ears but they were not converted. They had not discovered the truth about God. 

It is possible to latch on to a religious idea about God and never know God. I don’t advocate smoking, drinking, cussing or living immorally. Yet, not doing those things want make me a Christian. We must allow God to draw us to himself.

John 6:43-51
Jesus answered. 44 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."  NIV

To allow God to draw us to him we must back off and realize God’s dream for our lives. The Corinthians were seeking to embellish themselves through the selfish use of their spiritual gifts. It blinded them to what God was seeking to draw out of them through the Holy Spirit’s work. They were exercising their spiritual gifts through human strength alone. They probably thought they were given spiritual gifts and now everything was up to them. They sought to shape their own lives. They were not allowing God to draw them to himself. They discovered they could not come to God through human wisdom and strength.

Our search for significance through human wisdom and strength blinds us to what God seeks to do through each of us. Paul reminded the Corinthians the significance they sought for themselves was nothing compared to what God was seeking for them through Christ.  

1 Corinthians 2:6-10
6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written: 

"No eye has seen, 
no ear has heard, 
no mind has conceived 
what God has prepared for those who love him"— 

10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. NIV

Paul is not talking about heaven. He is quoting Isaiah’s prophecy of the coming of the Messianic age which Jesus ushered in when he died on the cross. No imagination could conceive of God’s personal plan for each of us in Christ. God’s dream for us didn’t end on the cross. It is ongoing throughout our entire lives. Whatever we strive to accomplish for ourselves is nothing compared to the glory God wishes t reveal in us and through us. His dream for each of us is still alive. We need to behold God’s wisdom for our lives for there is one thing that is certain—the wisdom of our age is leading us nowhere. We must allow God to draw us to himself through Christ.

Total Dependence on God

If religious practices and human wisdom could save us why would God sacrifice his own son? Too often religious practices blind us to our need for God. We seek to come to God with a few religious practices we believe to be important. We look to our spiritual gifts and human wisdom to make it happen. Somewhere along the way we begin measuring ourselves by ourselves and become fools. 

Luke 18:9-27
9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men — robbers, evildoers, adulterers — or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' 

13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' 

14 "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."  

15 People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 17 I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."  

18 A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 

19 "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good — except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'"  

21 "All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said. 

22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."  

23 When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. 24 Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25 Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."  

26 Those who heard this asked, "Who then can be saved?" 

27 Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God."  NIV

Jesus exposed the Pharisee’s spiritual bankruptcy (Luke 11:39-54). They were debtors to poor to pay what they owed God ((Luke 7:40-50). Yet, they sought the best seats in the synagogues and at their feasts. The parable of the Good Samaritan revealed how they were unconcerned about the needs of others. Yet, they stood and prayed this type of prayer to remind others of their righteousness. 

The rich young ruler bowed at Jesus’ feet. He called Jesus “good”, which was a word reserved by the Jews to refer solely to God’s goodness. It was not typically a word to describe man’s righteous acts—it was not a word the Rabbis used to describe themselves. Jesus reminds him that only God is good. The young man iterated his observance of the law when he came to the feet of Jesus, but he left worse off than he was when he initially met Jesus. He lost sight of God as he sought to glorify himself through his religious duties. 

Whatever image we create in our minds of ourselves is a very dim image in comparison to what God sees in us. How it must have flown in the faces of the self-satisfied when Jesus used the example of a determined beggar and children to teach them a lesson on humility. The Pharisee and the young man thought they had a good self-image carved out for themselves. Self-images revolve around what we know, what we own, the clothes we wear, who we believe ourselves to be, what others think of us, etc. Self-images are nothing compared to the image God stamped on our very being in creation. It is this image God is seeking to salvage in each of us through Christ. 

1 Corinthians 13:11-12
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. NIV

Spiritual gifts were never given to the Corinthians to enhance their self image. They were given to reveal the glory of God through weak and sinful people. We may even try to use our spiritual gifts to strive to live up to God’s image, but it will be nothing compared to what God sees in us. It is nothing compared to how we will see ourselves when we step into God’s presence in eternity. We will then see his glorious likeness in us. 

1 John 3:1-3
3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. NIV

When you listen to the verses I am about to read, you may think God is saying you are a nobody. It is not what he is saying. He is saying, very simply, that no image you hold up for yourself to emulate can compare to the original image God created in you. 

Isaiah 64:5-6
How then can we be saved? 
6 All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away. 
7 No one calls on your name 
or strives to lay hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us 
and made us waste away because of our sins. NIV

How then can we be saved? The question reveals the confusion of those who had carved out a warped image of themselves. It made it hard for them to even imagine what God desired to do through them. Nothing you can imagine can begin to compare to what God desires for you—to what God has planned for you. When we refuse God’s plan we are as one who wonders around in filthy rags. The goal is to reclaim our true identity with God. When we fail to do this, Isaiah describes what actually happens. 

Conclusion:

An amazing story about Derek Paravicini who is autistic aired on CBS 60 Minutes. Derek is blind. Derek can barely carry on the simplest of conversations. He doesn’t know his right from his left. He can’t hold up three fingers. He can’t button his shirt or tie his shoes. He doesn’t know how old he is. But he can play a piano. He can recall from memory any piece of music he has ever heard. He can also play a piece of music in the style of any musician he has ever heard. He can do it instantaneously without any effort. It is as if there is this person hidden deep within this autistic person that is screaming to get out if only he could somehow push his disabilities aside.   

Accepting one’s right to become a child of God seems so confusing to religious people. But there is a person inside us that God wishes to bring out of us. God wants to bring himself to life in us. This is what following Jesus is all about. But first we must take off our filthy rags and allow God to clothe us with the righteousness of Christ.

Galatians 3:26-29
26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. NIV