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
