A sermon on imitating fellow Christians
1) Have you ever wondered where mankind learned skills like weaving and house building?
2) Did God give Adam an understanding of things like engineering, or did this skill need learned?
3) What about other things in life – weaving and spinning – did men have to learn these skills as well?
4) If men learned these things, who taught him?
5) One suggestion is that man learned some of these things from nature.
6) If God did not automatically give man this knowledge, nature could have taught man many things.
7) Some think man learned to “weave and spin” by watching spiders.
8) House building, it is thought, may have been learned by watching swallows.
9) At least some things in life have been and continue to be learned by imitation.
10) We watch someone do something and we imitate that action.
a) Early in life children to imitate what they see and hear.
b) Business owners may try to imitate their competitors.
c) Teresa and I once went to Ohio and visited the Longaberger basket factory.
d) We learned that some people worked there for a while and then left.
e) They used the knowledge they gained to become a competitor.
11) In the Bible there is a strong emphasis on the idea of “imitation.”
12)
Just as a
child is encouraged to imitate good activity or employees are to imitate
coworkers, so the bb has a similar thing.
a) A special word is used in the New Testament to describe imitation.
b) This word, which we will look at tonight, is used as both a noun and a verb.
13) Our first passage is 1 Cor. 4:16.
a) Here is where Paul said “be followers (imitators) of me.”
b) Paul was not perfect man and he was not claiming to be perfect in this verse.
c) One source (Brown (1:491) defines it this way:
d) “Living in accordance with the instructions and conduct of the apostle.”
e) Paul was trying to live in the right way and he said, “follow my lead in this regard.”
14) What Paul said and how he lived his life are how we are to live.
15) When we look around it seems like there are those who have no clue about living the Christian life.
16) Some seem clueless on how to learn, grow, develop and mature.
17) We do not need to stand around and scratch our heads, wondering what God wants us to do.
18) God says there is a man we can look to an imitate – the apostle Paul.
19) If God gave us no other information, we might not know how fully to follow this apostle.
20) Should we follow Paul in all things, some things, or just a few things?
21) What if we find sin in the apostle’s life – should we follow that part of the example?
22) All these questions are explained in another reference – 1 Cor. 11:1.
a) The Corinthians had a lot of problems and Paul tried to help them.
b) Part of the help was given in 1 Cor. 4 where he said “follow me.”
c) In 1 Cor. 11:1 he explains what 4:16 means – READ 11:1.
23) Paul was to be followed, but only in the ways in which he “followed Christ.”
a) Paul was not a super apostle who was sinless.
b) He made mistakes and errors like everyone else.
c) For the most part he was trying to do what was right.
d) Thus, he was able to tell the Corinthians to follow him as long as he was doing things correctly.
24) This principle still is still relevant.
a) There is a sense in which of us are leading lives that can be imitated.
b) When we are on the right course, people can see that and try to follow in the path we make.
c) If people are doing that, we want to provide them with the best possible course.
d) Parents leave a path for their children to follow. Such is also true for every single Christians.
25) Thinking about this fact puts a whole new light on living the Christian life.
a) If someone choose to imitate us, what would their Christian life be like?
b) How often would they attend Bible class? How often would they be at services?
c) When we call for helpers, how would they react because they are following our example?
d) If they followed our example, how much Bible knowledge would they have?
e) How evangelistic would they be? How many sick and shuts ins would be visited?
f) How well would activities like our potlucks and work days be supported?
g) How good of a youth program would we have?
h) What would our congregation be like if everyone chose to follow our lead?
26) This is a serious and sobering question.
27) Someone may think he does not have an example to imitate.
a) Perhaps he is new to the area and does not know people very well.
b) Or, maybe he is a bit shy and hesitant about getting acquainted with his brethren.
c) How can a person who does not know Christians very well have someone to imitate?
28) Our next passage, Eph. 5:1, answers this question.
29) Paul said we are not limited to imitating a Christian like him.
30) If we do not use someone we know and we do not use his life, there is another resource.
31) Eph. 5:1 – READ
a) If we want someone to imitate, we can look at God.
b) In the Bible we have a lot of information about God.
c) All the information about deity is good – we cannot find anything negatives associated with God.
d) God is constant and good, so we can imitate those qualities.
e) He is an example of love, mercy, peace, hope, and perfection.
32) There is no excuse for Christians saying they do not know how to live or have an example.
33) We have multiple examples (living and deceased) examples of good people to mimic.
a) When we see Christians do a good thing, we should do more than think, “That is nice.”
b) We should see that action as something we also can do.
c) Maybe we can do it better than someone else has done it.
d) Maybe we can do it more often. It may be less often. We may not be able to do it as well.
e) We need to learn to imitate the good lives and examples of others.
34) We need to learn about imitating good things and people because of hard times.
a) Next on our list is 1 Thess. 1:6.
b) Paul had some friends at Thessalonica; he said these Christians had been imitators.
c) They had imitated him as well as others.
d) The imitation was during hard times.
35) 1 Thess. 1:6 – READ
a) A lot of people face difficult times in life.
b) We are going to react in the very same way that people in the past have reacted.
c) We may imitate people who were fearful and discouraged.
d) We may imitate those who were despondent and felt hopeless.
e) Or, we may choose to imitate the people who had faith. This is the right choice.
36) Abraham did not know where he was going – in his life things were very uncertain.
37) He had faith in God that all would be okay and we can imitate his choice.
38) Moses had some hard times, but he chose to be a man of faith.
39) We can choose to follow this same path.
40) Many men and women have decided to choose faith over fear and we can follow their lead.
41) We can be like the Christians at Thessalonica because they also are an example.
a) We often think about imitating people or things on an individual basis.
b) This is something that needs to be done and it is not hard to understand or do.
c) There is also imitation on a much larger scale.
d) There is what we might call “congregational imitation.”
e) We find this in our next passage, 1 Thess. 2:14– READ
42) It is possible for one congregation to imitate another congregation.
a) We see this from time to time and we have done it here.
b) One example is the House to House program.
c) This mailing was started by one congregation and other congregations also decided to do it.
d) The church of the New Testament is an autonomous body (each congregation is self-governing).
e) We may learn from other congregations and not interfere with congregational independence.
f) We should always be on the lookout for good things being done by other congregations.
43) In some cases we may find things there are bad examples—things we do not want to imitate.
44) In other cases there will be ideas and programs that are worthy of imitation.
45) 1 Thess. 2:14 says following the lead of other congregations is exactly right.
46) We want the best ideas and best efforts to be used in Christ’s church.
47) People and congregations can be given an example to follow, but they never get around to doing it.
a) This is what we find in Heb. 6:12.
b) Christians had things and people to imitate, but they lacked the motivation to do it.
c) This problem continues to affect people.
d) We may know that there are things and people to imitate.
e) We may know most or all that God wants us to do.
f) For some reason we never do what needs to be done.
48) We may feel too tired, want to put it off until tomorrow, or leave it for someone else to do.
49) Guess what? Others have faced these same temptations.
50) When presented with these temptations, some decided to not do what they should have done.
51) We do not want to follow these examples.
52) Others said we must do these things and this is the type of example we want to follow.
53) There are some great benefits in making this choice.
a) Peter wrote to some Christians who were facing some very difficult times.
b) He asked an interesting question in 1 Pet. 3:13.
c) If Christians were imitating the things that were good, who would want to harm them?
54) If Christians “followed what was good” (KJV), things would turn out okay.
55) In life and in eternity there is great benefit in following the divine examples.
56) Throughout the Bible we have example upon example to learn from.
57) Some examples are examples to follow; other examples tell us about things to avoid.
58) Examples from the past are one important tool to bring us to the place called heaven.
59) Tonight, which examples in God’s word are we following?
60) Are they the examples that lead to everlasting life or an eternity separated from God?