Portrait Of Jesus

Whenever i teach or preach, my objective is pretty much the same. I want to encourage you to love Jesus! A stable, mature relationship with Jesus is built line by line, precept by precept.

Hebrews 4:15

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 4:15?-?16 ESV

When we ask ourselves "what would Jesus do, " we can get some surprising answers by simply looking at the events of His life. We can see that He did in fact have to deal with the same realities that we have to deal with in our day to day lives amen?

So with that in mind, I want this to be a message where we look at Jesus with fresh eyes and really appreciate the fact that He did experience life just like we do. The title of this message is "Portrait of Jesus."

Jesus had fun.

Does that surprise you?

He was not a far-off ascetic who simply sat on a mountain at spouted platitudes. In fact, He enjoyed life even to the extent that He was (falsely) accused of being a glutton and a drunkard .

Let's look at Luke 10:21:

In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

The point I want to stress is that Jesus “rejoiced (Luke 10:21),” which is the Greek word agalliaô which means “to exult, rejoice exceedingly, be exceeding glad.”

The Bible is full of joy and laughter. In fact, it uses words such as “laugh,” “laughter,“ or other variations of those words over 200 times. The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery tells us that “The Bible is predominantly a serious rather than a funny book. Yet it would distort the Bible to suppress the humor that is present

Always keep in mind that Jesus was both fully God and fully human, and a part of being fully human is experiencing the full range of human emotion, both the joys and the sorrows. Jesus was not the dour, gloomy person that popular religious tradition has often painted Him as being. People from all walks of life actively sought out His company. Did you ever wonder why this was? While the spiritual aspects of His presence are obvious, could it have also been that He was (gasp) a fun guy to be around?

In his book The Humor of Christ, Elton Trueblood brings up a vitally important point: Many of Jesus’ parables and illustrations had humorous overtones in the vernacular of that day. “Why are you worried about a speck in your brother’s eye when you have a two-by-four in your own eye?”

A common form of communication for Jews in that day was called hyperbole, or exaggeration to emphasize a point. A modern example would be “I haven’t seen you in a million years!” Here, Jesus uses it in a very funny way, being a carpenter, Jesus used the tools of His trade to make a stinging point about religious hypocrisy.

Elton Trueblood also reminds us that “Often a smile comes because Jesus reveals to us some of the absurdity of our own lives, where we need help to recognize it .” I can certainly say “amen” to that, can’t you?

Jesus met people where they were. He went to social events and He didn't even mind providing the refreshments!

I think you know where I'm going with this. Turn with me to John 2:1-11 NLT

The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration. The wine supply ran out during the festivities, so Jesus’ mother told him, “They have no more wine.” “Dear woman, that’s not our problem,” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.” But his mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Standing nearby were six stone water jars, used for Jewish ceremonial washing. Each could hold twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” When the jars had been filled, he said, “Now dip some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies.” So the servants followed his instructions. When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from (though, of course, the servants knew), he called the bridegroom over. “A host always serves the best wine first,” he said. “Then, when everyone has had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine. But you have kept the best until now!” This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory. And his disciples believed in him.