It's All About Jesus

(This sermon was given at our annual "Unity Service" where our Spanish, Creole, Burmese and English speaking members join in Worship. Scriptures, songs and prayers were offered in different languages and the sermon was tranlated from English into the other langauges).

OPEN: A mom looked out a window and saw her young son playing church with their 3 kittens. He had them lined up and was preaching to them. She smiled and went back to doing some housework. A while later she heard meowing and scratching on the door. She went to the window and saw that Johnny was baptizing the kittens. She opened the window and yelled out, “Johnny, stop that! You’re gonna drown those kittens.” Johnny looked at her and said: “Well, they shoulda thought about that before they joined MY church.”

Johnny believed it was HIS church. He was in charge and he set the rules.

And over the years, that’s been one of the main problems that divided churches. Too many people would believe that their congregation is… THEIR church. It belongs to THEM!

ILLUS: Years ago, a man was visiting here and he joked with me: “It must be hard… working for 150 bosses.” I smiled and said “Oh, I don’t have 150 bosses - I have 150 people I minister to, but I only have ONE boss. My boss is Jesus… and I work for Him”

ILLUS: Our sign out front says “Church of… CHRIST.” Now, some people believe that’s a denominational designation. And it might be… for some congregations. But not here. That sign says this is a church … of CHRIST. This church belongs to Jesus. The people belong to Jesus; The building belongs to Jesus; The land belongs to Jesus; Our offerings belong to Jesus.

ILLUS: (Produce $100 bill) This is a $100 bill. Every Sunday I put a tenth of my income in the offering plate. Why do I do that? Because Jesus owns ME, and He owns everything I possess. I agree with King David who said “I will not offer anything unto the Lord that costs me nothing.”

And so every Sunday I put my tithe (1/10th of my income) in the plate, because everything I have… is from God. And this is my way recognizing He owns me/ and all I have. It's all about Jesus!!!

Ephesians declares that - we should be “eager to maintain THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit — just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call — ONE LORD, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Ephesians 4:3-6

We have ONE LORD (PAUSE)… one faith, one baptism, etc.. ONE LORD! And that ONE LORD is what gives us UNITY as a Church. And who is that one LORD? It’s Jesus - because… it’s all about Jesus.

Even when we became Christians it was all about Jesus. Notice what it says in Acts 2:38 "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

We’re not baptized to belong to a church. We’re not baptized to belong to a denomination. We are baptized in the NAME OF JESUS CHRIST to belong to Him for the forgiveness of sins, and to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We have ONE Lord AND ONE baptism. It’s all about Jesus.

And being baptized into Jesus is what keeps us in unity. One Lord… One Baptism … and (Pause) One Faith.

One Faith? What is this ONE FAITH makes us ONE? Well, that’s what Acts 2:42 is all about. We’re told that here that “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

The early church continually focused on these 4 things, and these 4 items were what kept them unified.

The first of these was the Apostles’ Doctrine, or the Apostles’ teaching. Notice whose doctrine this was: it was the APOSTLES’ doctrine. It’s not MY doctrine. It’s not the doctrine of this congregation. And it’s not the doctrine of numerous denominations across the world. It’s the Apostles’ doctrine And what was their doctrine about? It was about Jesus, because it was ALL about Jesus.

When Peter and the other Apostles attempted to find a replacement for Judas (who betrayed Jesus and had taken his own life) Peter said that the replacement had to be someone who “accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us — one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection." Acts 1:21-22