Join Mark Matthews and Jonathan Adkins as they discuss Doctrine: Rooted in Truth, Week 4.
The Lesson Plan
Doctrine: Week 4
(upbeat music) - Welcome to week four, teachers to our lesson plan podcast, where we're talking about rooted in doctrine. And I'm joined here today on Mark Matthews, the minister to single adults joined by my brother, Jonathan Atkins, who is our minister to married adult four. - Glad to be here. - And we are excited as we cover the truth number two, which is we are created in God's image. And Jonathan, I believe we're gonna start off with a hook from you. - That's right, Mark. Thank you. Our main point for today is that human beings are created in God's image to roll over his creation in his stead and reflect his character to the world. And I think we've got a great hook in here about a Lego creation, recreation of Disney World. Something you might wanna also mention or an alternative, I should say, is I think about, as I was thinking about this hook, I think about how the world has been settled blaze recently on the thought of artificial intelligence and how it's helping society or is it helping society and so on. And something that's been in the news about AI has been who's feeding the content? What kind of output are we getting from artificial intelligence? Can we go and ask it a question and get an objective response? Well, the reality is it's programmed by people. Of course, it searches the internet to feed it content for learning, but it is programmed by people and as such, being programmed by people, as we put queries into it, ask it questions, we're gonna get responses related to the thought of those programmers. They're gonna have a stamp on it, if you will, and what comes out. And in a similar way, as you think about artwork, as you think of the world's greatest paintings and so forth, artwork is often an expression of the artists, thoughts, emotions, beliefs. And so as you think about these illustrations, I think they all point back to our lesson theme about being created in God's image. For us, as humans, having the unique privilege of being created in God's image, there are certain characteristics that we share with God, our Creator. They're of course things that we don't share with God as there's only one God, but there are similarities that we have as humans being created in His image. And so we're gonna go ahead and transition into talking point one. - Yeah, that leads perfectly into point one, which is that humanity is made in God's image to be His reflection on earth. And it's out of Genesis chapter one, I love this passage. There's so much meat in this point too, but Genesis 1.26 says this, then God said, "Let us make man in our image after our likeness." You oughta underline those two words, image and likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created a man in His own image, and the image of God, He created them, male and female, He created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant, yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food, and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life. I have given every green plant for food, and it was so. And God saw that everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day." So here's point number one. God's purpose for us in life is not to be happy and feel good. Moral therapeutic deism, like we talked about in our last lesson, but it is to be a reflection of God's image, and likeness in the world. Now these two words are similar, image and likeness, but there is a difference between the two words. Being made in God's image means we are physical representatives of Him in this world. Being made in His likeness means that we resemble Him and are like Him and character. We were created in the image of God to rule over the world as His representatives, Genesis 2-7. Tells us that we are God-breathed creations of God. He breathed life into us. The world is not our kingdom, it's His, and we are ruling it for Him in His place. We are to be good stewards of the life and the world that God gave us. We were created in the likeness of God to live in a way, and this is where the difference is. We were created in the likeness of God to live in a way that resembles His character. When we live like God, we reflect His nature to the rest of the world. We show the world what He is like. We were created to be a reflection of His character to the rest of the world. Now here's the kicker, when sin entered the world in the fall of Adam and Eve, all of creation was broken. The image and likeness of God in us became distorted. Just like, here's a great example, Jonathan, just like when you drop a mirror and it shatters into a million pieces, the reflection from that mirror becomes distorted, it becomes fractured, and it's the same effect that sin has on us. We become broken and fractured, and the effect is that God's image and likeness through us to the world becomes distorted. But even in our distorted, broken reflection of God to the world, we are capable of showing God's love. When you choose to love others, like God loves you, it has a powerful spiritual healing effect on others. And I'll give you an example of this in my own life. One thing that I've learned to be really good at with my wife is admitting when I make a mistake, and saying, hey, I'm sorry, I was wrong, which is most of the time, by the way. And my wife needs to hear that. She needs to see that I'm willing to admit my faults and my brokenness, and that I am doing my best to show her God's love. - Yeah, that's a great illustration, Mark. Really appreciate that. And one thing that I was thinking about with this first talking point is that question over dominion in our curriculum, in that word dominion used in Genesis in verses 26 through 31 of chapter one. And I think about stewardship as well. Of course, dominion points to our rule over all the animals and earth that God's given us a privilege of doing under his leadership, of course. But we have that stewardship responsibility. How are we stewarding? How am I stewarding the earth? How am I stewarding the things in my care? How am I stewarding my children that God's gifted us with? How am I stewarding everything in my life, by every facet of my life? God's created us with that dominion responsibility and that stewardship responsibility. - Yeah, and one thing about that word steward, another word that I use that's closely related is to serve. How am I to lead, whether as a pastor, whether as a dad, whether as a husband or a friend, I am to serve? And so I always try to say how can I serve in the areas that God has given me to lead? And that's a big one for me because not everybody thinks, hey, I'm a leader or I'm the owner or how I'm the boss, but everybody can be a servant. - That's right, Mark. All right, we're gonna move on to talking point number two. I'm gonna read Hebrews one versus one through five and then move on to Colossians chapter one, verses 15 through 20. Hebrews one one through five says, long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things. Through him, also, he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he's set down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Or again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. I love these verses as it speaks toward the supremacy of Christ and his role in creation, as well as the fact that he is the exact imprint of God. We'll get more into that in a moment, but I'm gonna move on to Colossians one, 15 through 20. Colossians one, starting in verse 15, it says, talking about the preeminence of Christ, talking about Jesus. It says that he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things and in him, all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. Another great set of verses. Of course, they're all great, right? But I think these verses here, just like Hebrews one, speak specifically toward Jesus being, again, the exact imprint of God. When you see Jesus, when man saw Jesus, when man walked physically with Jesus back in New Testament gospels, they saw the exact imprint of God. They saw God in John chapter four, verse 24 in the gospels. It says that God is spirit. But later in John 14, nine, the disciples wanted to see God. He said, whoever has seen me has seen the father. So again, this points back to in Jesus, we see God and he is the perfect image of God. And another verse I wanna point out in this set of verses, Colossians one, it says in verse 18, excuse me, verse 18, it says that he is the head of the body, the church. And for us as the church, who do we follow, who do we see as our example, Jesus, right? And so as we are to be image bearers of God, to be representing God to others, as people see us, as we grow in our faith, we'll see the fruit of the spirit be enacted and people will see a greater representation of God in us as we further our sanctification. But my point here is that Jesus sets the example. He is the person we are to strive after. He is the founder and perfecter of our faith, as it says elsewhere in Hebrews. And so when I was younger, the popular thing, back when I was in elementary school back in the early '90s, it was to wear a bracelet that said, "WWJD." And what does that stand for? I know it wasn't unique to that time, but it was, what would Jesus do? And for us as image bearers, and as Christ being the perfect image of God, we ask ourselves, when we have questions to answer choices to make, what would Jesus do? We're ever wondering how can we best reflect God? Let's live like Christ's live. Let's serve, you mentioned service. One of the ways to do that is to serve. Jesus came not to be served, but to serve, to give his life as a ransom for many, as it says in Mark. What are other ways that we can reflect the image of God? What are ways that we can show Jesus in our lives? I think those are some questions that we could ask. Some very practical questions that we could ask our life groups. - Yeah, and that's a great question to ask. And when I'm teaching, I'm always God in mind, hey, I wanna dig into God's Word, and then I wanna point people to God, send Jesus in every way. In fact, that's what our pastor has done for the last 36, 35, 36 years, digging into God's Word, pointing people to Jesus. And one of the things that I would say, Jonathan, how can we do this? How can we best reflect? Jesus is to reflect his love, to love on others. When we don't know what else to do, we love on people. We love them without judgment, and we love them by serving. So that'd be something just to think about as you're teaching. Teach God's Word and always point people back to God's Son, Jesus. - That's great, Mark. All right, let's go ahead and move on to talking point three. - Yeah, point three is in Christ, we are made into new creations, and we are being transformed into the image of God every single day. Now, here's 2 Corinthians 3, 16 through 18. It says, "But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed." Now, the Lord is the Spirit, and then where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. I love this. It's not about us being happy. It's not about us being fulfilled. It's about the Spirit of God, because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Verse 18 says, "And we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." You know, there's a word that we hear in church a lot called sanctification. It's a big church word, and here's what it means. Sanctification is the process of becoming more and more like Jesus. That's the process that's being described here, that transformation process, that as the Spirit of the Lord works within us day after day after day, we become more and more like Jesus. You know, when we're physically born, the Word of God says we're born into sin, a distorted image of God, but in Christ, we are born again of the Spirit, or more literally in the Greek, we are born from above. God's Spirit dwells in us and we are made brand new. So Paul said, "Hey, we're being transformed into his image from one degree of glory to another." We don't perfectly reflect the image of God as Jesus, but we are growing in our reflection of the image of God as we live in Him and walk by the Spirit. This is a process by which we grow throughout our lifetime. It doesn't matter how young or how old you are, Jonathan, we are all in this life transformation. And here's the way I illustrate it. You think about the transformation of a butterfly. They have a very unique life cycle from a caterpillar to a cocoon and filing into a butterfly. And this process is known as metamorphosis. It's seen as a powerful metaphor for significant life changes and personal growth. And we are in a metamorphosis as a person from who we were to who Christ is transforming us into. And here's what that means. That those of us who have been made new creations can live differently. We can walk in freedom and the newness of life. We don't have to be chained to the sin and old patterns of our behavior. We can take off the old self and put on our new identity. And this means we can love differently. Instead of just basic human nature kind of love, we can love the way Jesus did. What would Jesus do? We love the way he loves. A selfless, humble, agape, love your enemies kind of love. We can build community with those who are different from us. We can seek justice for all. We have God's supernatural wisdom that is beyond human understanding. We can rule over God's creation with his heart for the world. We can live in the peace, love and abundant joy God intended because God's spirit lives in us and empowers us to walk in his ways. - That has great mark. And I was thinking some about your earlier illustration about the broken mirror, the thought of sanctification. Just imagine those going back to the illustration. Those pieces getting put back in place. And as we get sanctified, as we become more like Christ, which is a lifelong process, right? We will more perfectly reflect that image of God that we were created in. - And Jonathan, you know, I've heard the phrase, "God takes us as a mess and transforms us into a masterpiece or a masterpiece." Even the broken pieces he puts together and it's this beautiful picture, this beautiful mosaic that God creates in our lives as he transforms us. - That's right. And this could also be a time where you could talk through, when you think about the thought of how are we, excuse me, what are things that can help us in sanctification? What are spiritual disciplines perhaps? So we could start enacting if we haven't already. This is time where you can get into discussion of spiritual disciplines. What are things that help us better reflect the character of God? Well, it would be things that can help us in that things, of course, consist by consistent Bible study, consistent prayer time, consistent solitude time, with the Lord, think about giving and so on. There's so many different disciplines you can get into at this time. If you do have time in your lesson. - Yeah, and that's right. And it also helps us to know how we can minister to others. Sometimes we don't know how to. It's not just a matter of us setting someone straight, but it's planting that seed of truth. And as we plant that seed of truth, it gives us the opportunity to minister to them, to set someone up, to succeed, whatever God's called them to do or to be. That's the transformation we're talking about, the metamorphosis. And that's what sanctification is talking about, Jonathan. How can we set others up to succeed at whatever God has called them to do or be? - That's great. And so the reality is everybody in our life groups who have come to faith are being, have been transformed as a new creation and are continuing to be sanctified, like to be like Christ. And so all of us have a calling on our life to have dominion, to steward God's creation and to leverage those giftings that God's given us to help reflect His character to the world and help make new disciples of Christ. - That's right. But that's also why God didn't create any of us to be judges. I can't judge you. And in fact, God didn't even allow me to be my own judge. We're not to judge others because we're all in the same boat being transformed day by day by day. And on that note too, I think it's important to remind everybody that the gospel is for everybody. You have biblical examples of people like Paul, known as Saul who wanted to see Christianity dead. You had people like Peter who denied Christ. You had King David committing the sin of adultery. You had Moses who profaned the name of God in the way that he treated him in front of Israel. So he was judged and not allowed to enter in the Promised Land. - He lost his temper with God. - That's right. And so all these people had big failures in life yet. They were used in mighty ways by God. God redeemed them, restored them, used them. And the gospel again is for everybody. All of us are invited at the table to come to know Christ. - That's good. - All right, any closing thoughts Mark? - No, that's great. There's so much meat in here. I love it. - All right. Well, that's gonna be week four, the lesson plan podcast, teachers. Thank you so much for your time and we'll see you next week. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]