Jesus The Redeemer

There were those in the crowd who started to wonder if Jesus really could be the Redeemer Messiah prophesied in Scripture, and there were those in the crowd that finally connected the dots and affirmed that he was and then there were others who were really annoyed that this guy was ruining their fun and vacation and wanted him arrested. The mood of the festival turned from fun and frolic to conflict and confusion as people debated and argued with each other. Families would’ve been divided. All of a sudden what was a festival turned into an ugly, argumentative and divisive event. Verse 53 says, they broke up and went home.

So what do we learn about Jesus from this story? What do I observe about his personality? You might get something else out of it, and that’s OK, but, what I see is a man completely focused on His mission. Jesus is not intimidated by the fact that he’s being a Debbie downer. He’s confrontational, but, with a purpose. He knows he only has a limited amount of time to train his followers before His mission is done. He takes advantage of the festival and the crowds to get His message out there, knowing that many folks would be leaving the festival and going home. Jesus plan was to plant seeds in the minds of people that He is the Redeemer.

What about His priorities? His priority is to tell people who He is, why He’s there and to point them back to God. He makes a beeline for the temple because that was the Spiritual nerve center of the Jewish people. Even though many people weren’t in the mood to listen to Him, He got His message out there, first by teaching in the temple and getting people to talk about Him for a few days, and then issuing the public invitation on the last day.

And then in His power I see how God protects Jesus from arrest. He’s being hunted like a criminal, any other person would’ve been caught. But God kept Jesus from harm so that He could share His message.

As we process the message this morning I want to share with you what God’s expectation is. I know what it is, because His Bible tells me.

Paul says in Philippians 3:8, “everything is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ”

I have a trash can here. I put garbage in this container. Stuff that I have used or consumed that I don’t need or want anymore, or that is wasted material from being used. This is the word picture Paul paints for us. Everything in my life is trash compared to my relationship with Jesus Christ. In other words, my focus is on Him first before it’s on anything else. I consider my relationship with Jesus worth more than my marriage, worth more than my children, worth more than my own life. That doesn’t mean that my marriage isn’t important to me, it is, or that I don’t love my kids. They know I love them very much, but, my wife and kids know that to me, nothing is more important than knowing and obeying my Redeemer. This is how a follower of Jesus thinks.