The Metamorphic Phenomena

Can you think of a time in your life when God used some sort of pressure to help you grow and mature in your faith? Paul will tell us all here that the principle of pressure, the environment of pressure, is a part of God's plan in the metamorphosis of our character and our demeanor, and our disposition, and our testimony. You see, beloved, in the plan of God, pressure is productive.

It doesn't always seem like it at the time, but pressure is often a good thing. God uses pressure to shape and grow and transform us into His image. In nature, God created a process called metamorphosis. It's a process in which a creature goes through a refinement and comes out changed at the other side. Metamorphosis in nature transforms the weak into strong and the ordinary into magnificent. There are some spiritual lessons we can learn by studying that process that God created, and this is what we're examining today.

So here's your Bible teacher, Stephen Davey. In the late 1930s, a man by the name of Frank was diagnosed with hypertension, which was barely understood at all back then. He was diagnosed in 1937. His blood pressure was 162 over 98, and at the time that was considered mild and not of any concern. By 1940, his blood pressure was running 180 over 88, and still no treatment was ever initiated.

No doctors offered advice. In 1941, his pressure had risen to 188 over 105, and only then did his doctors suggest he cut back on work to see if that would help. He did, but his condition didn't improve. Four years later, Frank's blood pressure was 260 over 145. And a few months after that, on April 12, 1945, he complained of a headache, I can imagine. His blood pressure was measured at 300 over 190. Later that same day, he lost consciousness and died at the age of 63. You probably know him better as Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, under the best medical care in the country. And yet there were things going on inside him that the medical community hadn't caught up to, and didn't know any better. Unfortunately, 100 years later, we would know that if you're at 180 over 88, you need to cut back on something.

Donuts would be among the list, which is why you never go to the doctor, but at any rate, that would be what they'd tell you. I couldn't help but think of the believer. You happen to be living in a world that doesn't really understand what's going on inside you.

There isn't any expert that will ever catch up to it. The stress and the struggles of your life that inflict damage, not to your blood vessels, but to your spirit. We need guidance from beyond this world as we know it. The good news is we happen to belong to, we happen to have been designed by our great physician. And he's given us an inspired manual on, among other things, the human condition, how we work best. And he often refers to what's going on inside us in his word with the word that relates to the subject of transformation. The spiritual principle of transformation is not only revealed to us in Scripture, but it's illustrated for us in the natural world.

In fact, one of the most fascinating phenomena in the natural world is this process. There's a Greek term that has been transliterated into the English language for this process. It's the word metamorphosis.

Paul uses that word and we'll look at it in a little bit. Metamorpho gives us our word metamorphosis, which Kittel, a scholar of the Greek language, writes, can mean to remodel or alter or to change from one form to another. In other words, metamorphosis might refer to something new and improved, an added dimension in your life, or perhaps an entirely new form and function. Now there are a variety of ways you see this taking place in the natural world. What I want to say at the outset of our study today, the metamorphic phenomena is an incredible illustration of what's taking place in your own heart, in your own mind, in your own life, right now, and you are barely giving it any notice, but it's taking place by your divine creator or physician.

God is at work in you. Now this morning I want to point out three illustrations from the natural world of metamorphosis and provide three environments where they take place and apply them through scripture to our lives. Now when I mention the concept of metamorphosis in the natural world, you automatically think of the metamorphosis that produces beautiful what? Right, beautiful rocks. And I want to start there.

Hold your horses, we'll get to the butterfly in a bit. But let's start with what is scientifically referred to as metaphoric rock and the metamorphosis of rock into gemstone. And the principle or the environment where this takes place we'll simply call pressure. This is the metamorphosis of certain kinds of rock and the gemstones of great value.

Turn to Romans 5 and we'll look at that in a minute, but while you're turning, let me kind of explain this at the stage. At some point in the past, metamorphic rock inside the earth's crust and even deeper was subjected to intense pressure and heat, causing the atoms to recombine and create a new rock formation. Through the movement of earth's crust, whether it's the moving of the plates or the erupting of volcanoes, it took those rock formations, moving them closer to the surface where they could be mined. For instance, marble. It forms when limestone is subjected to intense pressure along with heat.

The calcite in the limestone recrystallizes and over time with enough pressure, it becomes marble and you get that new countertop you've perhaps always wanted. It's interesting that the prophet Jeremiah speaks of writing an unerasable record by writing, he says, with a pen of iron and a diamond tip. Almost all diamonds are formed a hundred miles below the earth's surface and even deeper, carried upward through those crustal movements, volcanic eruptions, and certainly through the eruption of water sources during the Noahic flood. Without that intense pressure, one hundred miles deep beneath the earth's surface, graphite would stay, graphite, and you would use it as a pencil in school. But if that graphite undergoes incredible pressure, the metamorphosis produces something so beautiful and so stunning that royalty have used it in their crowns and scepters for years and years. Gemstones created from metamorphic rock by intense pressure include rubies and emeralds, sapphire, of course diamond.

In fact, in Exodus chapter 28, we're informed that God selected those gemstones and others to fit into the breastplate of the high priest, which is a study all on its own. It's interesting to consider that without pressure, graphite remains very soft. I'm holding it in my hand, surrounded by a piece of wood. This is a number two pencil.

It cost pennies to own. It's hard enough to write with, and I'm left-handed, that's why I'm doing it this way. But it's soft enough so that you can easily erase it. This pencil, the graphite, and a diamond are made of the same carbon.

The difference is pressure. Nobody's going to wear this pencil around their neck for jewelry. In fact, when you guys proposed, I doubt any of you pulled out a pencil and said, honey, this is the same carbon atoms as a diamond. Look at the tip of that thing. That's got to be at least the size of a two carat diamond. Here, will you marry me?

Probably not. She doesn't want a pencil from Walmart. She wants you to go get something a hundred miles below the surface of the earth. That's a better analogy, isn't it, for that which represents the depth and the strength and the commitment of your love. That's why we propose not with pencils, but diamonds. You see, you add this principle of pressure and graphite metamorphosizes into the hardest, most beautiful rock, exquisite, valuable.

It's a privilege to own. The apostle Paul takes that word pressure and uses it to talk about how we as believers make our own walk more exquisite and more valuable, stronger. He writes in Romans 5 at verse 3 about a chain reaction in this transformation process. By the way, before we read the verse, he uses a word that's often translated tribulation as it is here.

It's the Greek word phalipsis, which is often better rendered and in this context as pressure. Notice what he writes. We exalt in our pressures. Oh, really? We're excited about that. Yeah. We're excited about our pressures.

Why? It begins this process knowing that pressure, there's the word again, brings about perseverance. It recrystallizes things in your heart and life that then produces character. And after that, hope. God is taking ordinary graphite Christians who are soft around the edges and he turns us into diamonds.

How? Through the principle of pressure where we learn to rely on him. We all face pressures. I, just in praying for you on the platform as you sang, I don't know what you're facing, the pressures that you've come in here bearing, but I know you're bearing them. Pressures of deadlines, pressures of office politics, pressures of relationships, pressures of failing health or mounting debt, pressures of job loss or grief, major events that put incredible pressure upon your heart and life. Paul will tell us all here that the principle of pressure, the environment of pressure is a part of God's plan in the metamorphosis of our character and our demeanor and our disposition and our testimony. You see, beloved, in the plan of God, pressure is productive.

Now that doesn't mean we're all going to say, okay, Lord, bring it on. No, but it's good to know in the mind of God, our designer, it can cause things to form, crystallize, and emerge and shine with brilliance with which we have not shown in time past. Let me address something similar but with a different product in mind, the metamorphosis of ceramic into porcelain. And I want to add the environment of heat or we'll call it refinement or refiner's fire. Now technically, porcelain is a form of ceramic. The term ceramic is broad. It's a term, frankly, for all clay forms. In fact, the word ceramic comes from the Greek term that means potter's clay, from which we get our expression pottery. The earliest forms of pottery that have been excavated are little pots or figurines or handheld oil lamps. In fact, I've held in my hand a ceramic oil lamp. It's only about that big around. It sits right there with a little hole where the wick would be dating back to the days of Abraham. And I just held it and stared and imagined. Fine china and porcelain and something like this are all made of clay, which, by the way, is another sermon.

And I thought about just kind of stopping and going off on that, but I'm not going to because it's an illustration of how God uses all of us, no matter where we are in the process of refinement. The difference is simply the matter of temperature. Higher temperatures and additional phosphates are elements added in the process. This is ordinary pottery fired at higher temperatures, and the product might be a porcelain tile or a fine china teacup, thinner, harder, able to have more design added to it, smoother, not nearly as porous, resistant to staining and chipping.

The key is the environment of heat. The apostle Peter is actually using the terminology of this process when he encourages the believer in 1 Peter 4. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing. He's thinking of the kiln, the firing process. But to the degree, there's another word, that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing if anyone suffers as a Christian. You've been in that kiln. You've been fired.

Don't be ashamed. It is to glorify God. This is the principle of heat. The believer, through the fire of trials, is refined, tested, emerges along the way, not needing to be ashamed, but knowing God is going to use you in unique and different ways to demonstrate even more the brilliant, very colored grace of God.

This is the confidence of Job, who writes with this perspective, God knows the way I take and when he has tried me, when he's put me in the furnace, I'm going to come forth as gold. Metamorphosis, this metamorphic phenomena, reveals to us spiritual principles as it relates to the environment of pressure, the environment of heat. Thirdly, let me talk about the principle or the environment of change.

Let's address the metamorphic phenomena that we expected to cover in our study, and that is the metamorphosis of caterpillar into butterfly. Now, if you turn to Romans 12, in this text, Paul is going to use the word metamorphosis, he's going to first tell us to stop doing something, he writes, do not be conformed to this world, I love Philip's translation, don't allow the world to squeeze you into its mold. That's the verb, to be conformed, it's also passive, which means this is something done to you. Don't let the world do this to you. The world is going to continually try to do this to you. Don't let it melt you down and pour you into its mindset, its mold.

What is that mindset? Well, ask the average person on the street, you know, how did the universe begin? And they're going to say, an accident. It's the big bang. An accident, ask them how it's going to end, well, probably an accident.

Oh yeah, really, yes, absolutely. Well, why are we here? Are we the result of an accident?

Yeah, a bunch of random ones. What moral instructions do we have then? What purpose is there for which we live? Well, accidents don't come with instructions. That's why it isn't long before the average person understands, figures out that the accidental life isn't really worth living. There's no meaning. There's no purpose. There's no definition.

There's no code of conduct. Celebrity chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain wore a tattoo on his arm that read in the Greek language translated meant, I am certain of nothing. And the unbeliever would be right, that would be the motto, the mindset. See, ladies and gentlemen, it's possible for a Christian to be molded by the world rather than be molded by the word. Keep this in mind, Paul is writing this command to Christians. If it wasn't possible, if it wouldn't happen, he wouldn't have to say, stop letting the world do that to you, which is the way you translate those tenses.

Now Paul goes on. Do not be conformed to the mindset of the world, is what he means, but be transformed. Metamorphosis is the English word we get from that word transformed. By the renewing of your minds. In other words, to press the point, don't be shaped into the mindset of the world. Be radically changed into the mindset of the word. The Holy Spirit through the word of God isn't interested, by the way, in making a few modifications, applying a little makeup here or there. He's actually interested in this metamorphic phenomena in deconstruction and reconstruction. He's going to create a new creature, new appetite, new purpose, new values, new direction, new focus. Nowhere is this more beautifully illustrated than in the metamorphosis of the visible transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly. With the aid of modern DNA and the help of MRIs, we're now able to see and know what centuries did not see or know before us.

Let me give you a quick review. For many species, of course beginning as a caterpillar, they eat only one certain kind of plant. Well, the mother knew just where to deposit the egg. By the time the caterpillar finishes growing, by the way, it will have grown over 3,000 times its original size in a matter of a few weeks. To give you a little perspective, that's like a six-pound baby growing into a 6,000-pound. Just think of Godzilla.

I know it's as noisy as Godzilla, but imagine the size, it all happening in a few weeks. Eventually, that feeding frenzy stops and it spins a cocoon and disappears from sight. The entire caterpillar actually dissolves into caterpillar soup.

Soup is my term, I can't pronounce their term. You understand what I mean. If you cut a cocoon open at the wrong time, all that would come out is a liquid. And yet in that, the designer has placed everything necessary for a new creature to effectively be created. Paul writes similarly when he says, when you're in Christ, you are a new creature. Old things are passing away. Behold, look, new things are coming.

So you could render the text. We have a new appetite, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow in respect to your salvation since you've tasted the kindness of the Lord, 1 Peter 2. We have a new direction. You can think of it as we have a flight pattern now in life that's different.

We're not crawling around, we're soaring. In reference to your former manner of life, Paul writes to the Ephesians, lay aside the old self which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit and be restructured, be reformed, be renewed in the spirit of your mind, putting on the new self which in the likeness of God has been created for something brand new, by the way. The righteousness, holiness of the truth. So you need all of these principles or environments at work for this phenomena, this process of growing and maturing and reproducing and disciple-making. We need the environment of pressure so that we're developing new attributes like gemstones that shine for the glory of God.

Reflecting ultimately is glory. We need the environment of fire or heat, the refiner's fire. It isn't going to be soft steam that keeps us all comfortable and cozy.

Oftentimes the Christian life is like a blowtorch and it's high heat, high heat. We trust the Lord, our Savior, as he refines us. We need the environment of change.

Who volunteers for that? Lord, this coming week I'd like you to radically change my life. But we really want our schedules mapped out for days in advance. And yet God enrolls us and through the DNA of his spirit and his word he changes our appetite, he changes our mindset, he changes our focus, he changes our walk. So may this metamorphic phenomena impact us as we surrender to him, whether it be pressure today or heat, fire or change, experiencing his character developing in us and being demonstrated through us all because of our faithful, loving physician, designer who knows what's going on inside you right now, who knows what you need according to his creative, metamorphic design for you, ultimately for his own glory.

Let's yield. Let's embrace this phenomena in our own lives. No matter how mature you are in your faith, God wants to change you. I hope that this reminder from God's word has encouraged you today. And I hope that the next time you face pressure and testing, you'll use it as an opportunity to grow in your faith. Stephen Davey is working through a series called In Living Color, here on Wisdom for the Heart. If you missed any of the lessons in this series and want to get caught up, we've posted them to our website. You'll find us at wisdomonline.org. Go there anytime to access our resources and be sure and join us next time for more Wisdom for the Heart. .