Fixing Our Thoughts On Jesus. Series

I want to read a motoring magazine type article on the 1999 Porsche 911 Carrera 4.

"Go ahead. Try it." My driving instructor was eager to send me down the slalom in the 1999 Porsche 911 Carrera 4.

Intrigued, I punched the gas pedal and started dodging orange cones set out on the pavement. A few seconds later, I had swished around them all, amazed at the stability and grip of this new Porsche. Second, third and fourth runs in the slalom confirmed this was no aberration. The car behaved impeccably. As I’d start to swing wide, there seemed to be a quick, sudden tire grip at just the right corner, helping to get me in the right direction.

What was that? I wondered. It was all PSM. P-S-M. PSM is Porsche Stability Management system, and the 1999 4-wheel-drive 911 Carrera is the first Porsche to get it.

I notice that many of you seem disinterested.

It is like you are saying this doesn’t relate to my life!!

What though if I told you that outside of this church was a brand new Porcshe 911 Carrera with your name on it’s ownership papers??

What if I handed you the keys??

Then you would read the article with great interest. The instructions about how to pick up your new possesion would also be followed most carefully.

This nmornings reading from Hebrews begins with the word Therefore.

And the Therefore here is really about your inheritance. It refers back to chapter two and pervading that passage is the thought of the great salvation you have in Jesus Christ. If you can grasp this inheritance then chapter three will make rivititing reading. If not - well it might sound like the Porshe Carrera 911.

Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling - This is written to those who have inherited a heavenly calling - it is written to those who know what their inheritance is in Christ and because they know they are going to sit up and take notice.

What the letter is saying is to fix your thoughts on Jesus - if your destination is heaven - then keep your focus on Jesus Christ not on the things of this world - Because He is writing to the Hebrews he goes on to point out that Jesus is greater than Moses. Why does he do that?

Because the Hebrews inclination was drifting from the New Testament about Jesus back to the old and the centuries old focus on Moses.

Moses he says is worth less honour than Jesus - Moses is part of the house of God - but Jesus as the builder of the house is logically worth more honour - No contest!!

As a result of all Christ has offered believers, Paul - who I believe wrote Hebrews - encourages his readers to fix their thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. One of the greatest things you can do is to fix your thoughts on Jesus Christ. How much time do you think the average believer spends thinking about Jesus?? Thinking about Jesus transforms peoples lives - it has been the greates source of hope in twenty centuries of world history since his resurrection.

How do you fix your thoughts on Jesus??? There are many thoughts about Jesus today but I would like to suggest that the best thing anyone can do is to invest their thoughts in and around the four gospels and the books that act as a magnifying glass to these great books inspired and gifted by the Holy Spirit of God. RC Sproull says - There are so many portraits of jesus in the galleries of this world that it seems hopeless to clarify the confussion they have wrought in peoples minds about who Christ is. So many conflicting images of him are put forward that some people have despaired of achieving an accurate picture of his true identity.

We need Christ. We need a real Christ. A Christ born of empty speculation or created to squeeze into the philosopher’s pattern simply won’ do. A recycled Christ, a Christ of compromise can redeem no one. A christ watered down, stripped of power, debased of glory, reduced to a symbol or made impotent by scholary surgery is not Christ but Antichrist.

Powerful stuff.!!!

A few weeks ago we reminded ourselves of the words of Hebrews chapter 12 verse 3 "Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."

To fix our thoughts on Jesus will encourage us to hold onto our salvation.

When we fix our thoughts on Jesus we reflect on the most amazing birth that the world has ever seen - we think about a child who is treasured by God and grows up to be a truly amazing man. We see him revealing God through miracles - acts of power and with incredible teaching that has been treasured ever since. We observe him rebuking the influential and powerful and siding with the broken - sinful and oppressed - we watch in horror as he touches the leper and gasp as he tips over the tables in the temple.