Putting on Christ series: Lesson 1

Putting On Christ Go directly to point 1 Go directly to point 2

Years ago I gave a sermon in which I described God as a living, personal being.

I stressed the point that the more real God is in our minds, the closer we can be to him.

This past week I was doing some Bible study and came across a scripture that took this line of thinking a step further.

Turn in your Bibles to Gal 3 and beginning in verse 24

Speaking of Jesus Christ…

24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

“Unto Christ…..by faith IN Christ Jesus…..put on Christ”

How do you PUT ON Christ?? Let us find out.

My purpose today is to urge all of us to Put On Christ

To “put on Christ” we must know and understand each and every facet of His character and being.

Now in the small limitations of one sermonette it would be impossible to even summarize the dozens of elements that make up Jesus Christ so here’s what I am going to do…

Over the next year, I am scheduled for one sermonette a month. During this time we will explore two or three aspects of Jesus Christ with each sermonette. We will put what we learn into a notebook. (Explain)

For example, we will see that Christ…

…did not waste time judging others…

…He had a passionate commitment to the cause…

…He worked through His fears…

…He had a plan…………and much, much more

Today I want to look at the first two character traits of Christ as we learn to….PUT ON CHRIST.

We will look at all of these elements from His human life on Earth.

1. Christ had a mission and He stuck to it.

All through the gospels we see Christ stating why He had come.

“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulful.”

“I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance”

“I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

“To this end was I born, and for this cause came I unto the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.”

Jesus knew his mission and He did not deviate from it. There was one being, however, that made it his business to detract Him from His mission.

Turn over to Matthew 4 and beginning in verse 3

Matthew 4:3-11
3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

Satan could not detract Him!

As we put on Christ ask yourself the following questions…

ONE: What is your mission? Can you define it like Christ did?
TWO: Can you list those items in your life that have come your way to distract you from your mission?

In another statement about what His mission was Christ said…

“My meat is to do the will of him that sent me” …speaking of His father God Almighty. …and this leads me to my second of two points for today.

2. Jesus kept in constant contact with His Father.

It is said that prayer is the highest exercise of man’s spiritual nature. It clearly was with Christ.

In one Bible help on the subject of Christ praying to His Father, I counted over 40 recorded instances and we know by the scriptures and their context that He prayed even more that what is actually cited.

The Bible states that He…

“…rose up in the morning and went out and departed into a solitary place, and their prayed.”

“He withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed.”

“He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.”

“He prayed in the Garden His last night on earth”

“He prayed on the stake and His last words were part of a prayer”

Question we must ask ourselves: How regularly do we communicate with our boss and Father in heaven?

There was one man who at an early age learned about keeping in contact with God.

(Tell story—sick wife, no food, no fuel, no money for hospital bill and no overcoat)

Well, there you are, the first two aspects of the character of our elder brother Jesus Christ. There is more to come.

Learn these things, for in doing so we…PUT ON CHRIST

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