Revealed As We Are, Pursuing Holiness

Today we are going to walk through discovering who we really are and how holiness gets us there.

First, who we really are.
We live in a world where self awareness is as difficult as self identity.
It is a world where people have no clue who they really are and often project an identity that isn’t really them.

I have to be careful to say it is just in the world.
It has infiltrated the church as well: people wearing masks.
We know many wear the mask to hide pain, but many because they don’t really know who they are.

But is that really the truth?
Is it really that we don’t know who we are?
Or is it that we have a pretty good idea of exactly who we are, and we need the mask because who we really are isn’t something to put on display?

Just like we all have a body, soul, and spirit, we all have Three Images

2 Corinthians 5:9-10
For we must all appear and be revealed as we are before the judgment seat of Christ.

Look closely at the words revealed as we are.

Every human being has 3 images:
their perceived image
their projected image
and their actual image.

Our perceived image is how others see us. Our projected image is the way we desire others to see us. Our actual image is who we really are, and can be hidden or unnoticed by others, but it's fully visible to God. It's how we'll be revealed before all at the Judgment Seat.

Consider Jesus
He was misunderstood, falsely accused, identified as a drunkard and glutton, labeled as a heretic, and even accused of being demon inspired. He was rejected by the religious leaders and others. His perceived image was unfavorable in the eyes of many, especially the notables.
- Misunderstood
- Lied about
- Demon possessed
- A drunkard
- A glutton
- An unholy man who hung out with sinners
- A heretic
- The list continues...

John 7:3-4
“So his brothers said to him, "Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world."”

Jesus' brothers were controlled by other's perceptions and attempted to bring Jesus under the same slavery - the fear of man.

Jesus' actual image is quite different than many perceived:
- "He is the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15).
- God Almighty audibly affirmed, '"This is my dearly loved son, who brings me great joy'" (Matthew 3:14).
- Jesus' perceived image is not what endured, rather His actual.

While on earth, Jesus shunned self-promotion and any efforts to build His own reputation. He avoided popularity, notoriety or the accolades and approval of men. When people wanted to promote Him to be king, He pulled away. There was no facade, false illusions, or deceit in Him. He delighted in the fear of the Lord, which kept His focus on the Father. We should also be the express image of Jesus.

When our perceived image carries greater weight than our actual
image:
- Our reputation is what we will protect.
- Our efforts will focus on appearances, status, titles, popularity, acceptance, reputation, and so forth, for they cover our shortcomings.
- But none of this is what will be revealed and examined at the judgment, rather it will be our actual image, which centers around our motives and intentions.

I Corinthians 4:5
“Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.”

Many discount this scripture thinking it applies to the unbeliever's judgment. Not so, for no unbeliever will receive praise at their judgment. This can only speak of believers.
- Our awareness of its reality creates a holy fear, which in turn keeps us in check, and enables us to live from our actual image.
- The antithesis also holds true, the more we lack the fear of the Lord, the more we will lean on our projected image.

Ananias & Saphira
The backstory is important to understand this couple's errant behavior. Their saga begins in the 4th chapter:

Acts 4:36-37
“And Joses, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles (which is translated Son of Encouragement), a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.”

During this time-period, Cyprus was an island of great wealth, an abundance of precious stones, copper and iron mines, and a great source of lumber. It was famous for its flowers, fruit, wine, and oil. If you owned land in Cyprus, you were most likely well off.

Imagine this: a wealthy Levite from Cyprus brings a very large sum of money received from the sale of his land to give openly before the entire church.

Acts 5:1
“But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession.”

Notice the first word, "But." This wealthy newcomer joins the church and brings a massive offering that everyone witnesses. His gift creates a reaction on the part of this couple. They immediately sell some property and...

Acts 5:3-5, 11
“But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who heard these things. So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things.”

What initiated this response?
Could it be that this couple, up to this point, had the reputation of being the biggest givers in the church? Did this couple enjoy the respect and attention too much? Were their insecurities threatened in being outdone by the new guy? Were all the people celebrating his enormous gift, how it would help their outreaches and care for the poor, causing their focus to shift away from Ananias and his wife? Perhaps the couple coveted the lost attention, so they responded by selling a plot of land, quite possibly, their greatest asset.

They reasoned, "This is far too much money to part with. But we wantto appear to give it all. So let’s only give a portion, but announce, 'It's everything we received.' This deceptive thinking could have been strengthened by rationalizing:" ...it could encourage others to give large gifts."

Appearance was more important than truth, and thus, led to deception.

How could this couple ever think God didn't see this? How did two professing believers, who'd witnessed notable miracles in the previous chapters the wind of heaven blowing and getting the attention of an entire city, thousands saved in unannounced meetings, a cripple person miraculously walking, God's power shaking a building, and more, possibly believe they could hide their motives from God Almighty?

This happens all too often! How could Adam and Eve who walked with God in the garden possibly believe they could hide from Him after sinning (see Genesis 3:8)? Or, how could the people of Israel say, "'The Lord does not see!"' (Ezekiel 9:9)? Or how about this shocking statement: “‘Son of man, have you seen what the leaders of Israel are doing with their idols in dark rooms?’ They are saying, ‘The Lord doesn't see us’” (Ezekiel 8:12)?

All these scenarios have a common root that fosters this gross error: A lack of holy fear.


Here is a very important truth:
Our holy fear grows proportionally to our comprehension of God's glory. The antithesis is also true; we will dumb down His greatness, even to the point of human limitations, the less we fear Him. And the less we fear Him the more emphasis we place on how people see us.

Think of it like this:
The more we fear God the less we emphasize how people see us. This statement is very similar to the idea from last week that “Holy fear is not that we are terrified of God, but that we are terrified to be away from him.”
In the same way, we could say, “Holy fear is not emphasizing how people see us, but how God sees us.”
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The more you fear him the more your emphasis adjusts from how people see you to how he sees you simply because his opinion is the most valuable.

So what was Ananias & Saphira's deadly trap?
They were more interested in how they were perceived by those they saw as their rivals, friends, church members, and leaders.

Let's imagine their journey that led to their downfall. I'll modernize and paraphrase their journey to their downfall for the sake of relatability:

- The church was young and growing.
- They were beginning to gain a "reputation" and God was perhaps working through them.
- They enjoyed the feeling of being recognized as "important" and reveled in it.
- As their reputation grew, they possibly felt the need to cover their questionable behaviors to maintain their reputation in the eyes of others.
- Maybe they fought and disagreed often with each other.
- The couple didn't want their peers to see their disagreements and strife, so they project a loving and caring attitude toward each other.
- They posted pictures and videos on lnstagram and Tik Tok of hugging, smiles, and 'enjoying' fun activities together.
- The captions read something like, "living the dream," or "I love doing life with her (or him)!"
- There were numerous other posts depicting their successful life (which was struggling), growing business (which was on a downturn), beautiful children (whose behavior was defiant, entitled, and selfish), and other shortcomings.
- It seemed to work because their social media followers were rapidly increasing.

Ananias and Saphira were in a pattern of keeping their projected image strong. It all seemed harmless, yet their godly fear was gradually diminishing with every act of hypocrisy. Because they were so focused on their projected image, they abandoned holy fear, and rather than walking in that fear and improving their actual image, they replaced the fear of God with the fear of man, and the result was devastating.

The day came when a man named Barnabas brought his offering before the church. The attention of their peers suddenly shifted. They were outdone, and their projected image was threatened. And by this time, the emphasis on their self-made image had already been well developed.

The rest is history. It all seemed harmless and inspiring to others, but it led them down a dangerous and destructive path.

Did the Holy Spirit give us this couple's fate in Scripture to warn us and give us a glimpse of how serious the judgment seat will be?

Paul writes in 1 Timothy 5:24
“Some men’s sins are clearly evident, preceding them to judgment, but those of some men follow later.”

Ananias and Saphira's sin was made openly evident to all on that memorable day. Their judgment was proclaimed in advance. However, what is more alarming is the sins of most will be made evident later.

God knows not only what I do, but the motives and intentions behind what I do.

We can confess our dark motives, repent of them and God will not only forgive, but if we cry out to Him for holy fear and renew our mind through Scripture, we can be blessed with pure motives. The point is that God is wanting us to get away from darkness and into light, out of wickedness and into righteousness. What Ananias and Saphira really did was not just lie, they rejected holiness. When they should have been pursuing holiness, they pursued vanity.

What does it meant to pursue holiness?

The Pursuit of Holiness

II Corinthians 7:1
“Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

Hebrews 12:14
“Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:”

Holiness is not an end unto itself, rather it's a passageway into what's most important.

The word 'pursue' is the Greek word which is defined, "to do something with intense effort and with definite purpose or goal." This statement speaks of passionately chasing after holiness with the intent to apprehend it.

Holiness in our lives has two main facets: positional and behavioral.

Positional
Ephesians 1:4
Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.

Example of Marriage.
Can you imagine a spouse saying to one of her close friends, "I'm chasing with intense effort to be my husband's wife!"? They'd think she lost her mind. She already holds the position of wife. The moment you make Jesus Lord of your life, you release to him your wickedness and you embrace his holiness. We are justified (Just as if I’d…)

Remember, holy is simply to be set apart. You are set apart from the rest unto the Lord.

Leviticus 20:26
You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine
Peter reaffirms this in 1 Peter 1.

What does all of this mean?
As far as your position with God is concerned, you are covered under the Blood of Jesus and are positioned in terms of your relationship with God just as Jesus is. When God sees you, he sees the holy blood of his son and you are “imputed” his holiness and righteousness. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
That is positional holiness.

But God wants us to work out behavioral holiness as well.

Behavioral
1 Peter 1:15
But as the One Who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all your conduct and manner of living.

The consequence for ignoring this command is not seeing the Lord.

How does this affect us in the here and now-on a daily, and even moment by moment, basis? If we lack godly fear, we will lack the drive to pursue the holy behavior granting us the privilege of His manifest presence.

Remember, godly fear is that list from last week rolled into one:
- To reverence and be in complete awe of Him.
- To esteem, respect, honor, venerate and adore Him above anyone or anything else.
- To love what He loves, and we hate what He hates.
- To hate all manner of evil, sin and injustice.
- To depart from evil in every sense.
- To give Him praise, adoration, thanksgiving, and worship.
- To give Him all that belongs to Him.
- To give His word and presence our full attention.
- To have that inward force determined to obey and carry out His will, no matter the cost.
- To allow holy fear to shape our intentions, thoughts, words, and actions.

Jesus says, "'He who has My commandments and keeps them...l will love him and manifest Myself to him"' (John 14:21).

It's worth repeating: no behavioral holiness, no seeing the Lord.
Real world translation: Don’t expect to experience the holy presence of God in your life if there is no holiness in your life.

Why is this so critical?
First, if we don't see Him, we'll lack His manifest presence, and we can't know Him intimately. Or worse, we deceived ourselves by creating a fictional Jesus who does fictional things. The real danger here is not just creating a Jesus that isn’t who he really is, but in the fact that you can too easily allow unmet expectations to cause you to hate him and ultimately abandon him.

Second reason is equally important.
Without being in His presence, we cannot be changed or transformed into His likeness. You have to be careful you don’t want his benefits more than you want him. When you want his benefits more than him, you will get neither. When you want him more than his benefits, you will get both.

The Reward of Holiness

Paul told us what happens to those who see the Lord:
2 Corinthians 3:18
So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

The veil being removed happens in that moment when you make Jesus Lord, and as you not only see him, but also pursue and embrace holiness, reflecting the glory of the Lord, we are changed. Do you want God to change you into the best version of you? This is what happens as we pursue and embrace his holiness through holy fear.

But we have to be careful not to take this process lightly. Many so called Christians do this, living half in half out. The Apostle James is very strong with believers who take holiness lightly. He writes:

James 4:3-4
Your motives are all wrong-you want only what will give you pleasure. You adulterers! Don't you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God?

James uses the word adulterers, a term used for the violation of a marriage covenant. God often uses marriage imagery to illustrate our covenant with Him. Jesus is called the Groom and we are the bride. Paul states a marriage between a man and woman is an example of the way Jesus Christ and the Church are united (see Ephesians 5:31-32).

Two Main Reasons to Avoid Adultery
The first and foremost is that I fear God. I made a covenant with God, not just my wife, to love and nurture my her, regardless of her response or behavior.
The second reason is: I don't want to lose intimacy with my wife. I love that she confides in me, shares her innermost secrets, and heart longings. In essence, I love our closeness.

It's no different with Jesus. The reason I passionately avoid committing adultery against Him is that I don't want to lose the intimacy we share together. I love the closeness of His presence and the intimate conversations we have together. I love it when He shares secrets with me that I've never known before.

Could it be why we are told:
Psalm 25:14
The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.

Without chasing after, with the intent to apprehend, behavioral holiness I cannot enter into the presence of the Lord. It's not when I arrive at the place of perfect holiness, rather when I make it my heart's pursuit.

So the message today is this:

We can confess our dark motives, repent of them and God will not only forgive, but if we cry out to Him for holy fear and renew our mind through Scripture, we can be blessed with pure motives.

We always talk about how thinking dictates belief and belief dictates action.
This is that process.

And when we do this, it means we can abandon the fear of both how other people see us and how we want to be seen and simply live out who we actually are in Christ.

IN CHRIST.
When we try to live outside of Christ, we project a version of ourselves that isn’t reality. Our life is in Christ and when we pursue holiness, the REAL us can live.

The best thing I could be is like Jesus, and when I am pursuing holiness, that’s exactly what I am.

I know you want to be the real you. It starts with the fear of God.

My question today is:

What do you need to be doing to more effectively pursue holiness?

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?