What Is Jesus Costing You?
Part 1
Scripture: Philippians 4:19; Matthew 21:23-27; John 4:7-45
Introduction
We have entered into a new year and a new decade. This year I want to encourage you to look closely at your personal relationship with Christ so that you know. We need to know and understand why we believe what we believe. We need to know and understand what it means to worship God in spirit and in truth. We need to know and understand why we choose to accept the fullness of the relationship presented to us through Jesus Christ. We need to know and understand all of these things so that when we are asked, we can confidently share our beliefs and/or experiences with someone else. It is not a requirement that you believe as I believe, but whatever you choose to believe you should know at a minimum why you believe what you do.
Developing an individual relationship with Christ is like learning to drive a car. When a small child rides in a car, they sit in the back seat, often in a car seat. When they get in the car, they do not understand what the driver does to make the car move, but they know that the thing they are riding in begins to move. As they grow older, they begin to take notice of what their parent does to make the car move. They see the key going into the little hole and their parent turning it. They see their parent’s foot pushing up and down on the two pedals while their hands turn this big wheel. They see all of this, but the full understanding is not there. Finally they become teenagers and they want to learn to drive; they want to experience what their parents experienced. They take a driver’s education course where they learn the fundamentals. Their parents then begin to give them real time experience. Until they actually sit behind the wheel of the car, they only have an educational knowledge of how to drive the car. Their understanding is based solely on what someone else’s experiences are based on what they have learned. However, once they get behind the wheel of the car, they begin to understand and experience fully what it means to drive. The more experiences they obtain, the more confidence they have in their driving ability. As they experience driving in the rain, they begin to understand why they must slow down. As they experience sliding in the snow, they begin to understand how you turn into the slide versus away from the slide. All of these individual experiences add to their collective knowledge about driving. As they continue to get older and more experience, they learn to take care of a car with the normal maintenance activities such as oil changes, etc. Finally one day they get the experience of purchasing their own car and having a car payment. Although they will continue to learn through their driving experiences, they now have a personal knowledge and understanding of driving and are able to explain it and possibly teach others to do it. At this point it is not just about the fundamentals of the action, but being able to explain the rationale of why some things must be done a certain way.
Now consider how we develop our personal relationships with Christ. We start off just like that child in the back seat. We witness others praying and singing and talking about Christ, but for us it is just what they do. We do not understand fully why they do it, but we know once a week we go to a Church and this is what happens. As we begin to grow, we move from the backseat to the front seat. Now we are able to witness what the others are doing in their relationship with Christ. We start to pay attention to the testimonies and begin to wonder if the same things could happen in our lives. We begin to question how they came to where they are – just as the child watched their parents drive and began to question what it means to do certain things. As we continued to grow, more questions are asked and answered until finally we want to have that experience, that knowledge for ourselves. This is when we finally come to realize that God is a personal God and desires to have a personal relationship with each of us through His Son Jesus Christ. We begin to seek out that relationship – just like driver’s training. When we begin to interact with Christ one on one we begin to understand. This is the knowledge that begins to change how we see God and how we interact with Him through Christ. When this starts to happen, we are confident in what we believe and why we believe it and can easily talk to others about it. When someone asks how we can believe in a God that we have never seen we can give an answer that is fully based on reality and our personal experiences with Him. We can talk about our beliefs in Christ dying for our sins and thus bringing us back into harmony with our Father. It ceases to be about how many Scriptures we can quote based on what others have said, but how many Scriptures we have experienced. When someone quotes Philippians 4:19 which says “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” we can say “He already has and let me give you one example…” You see, it is the personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ that makes the Scriptures come alive and mean something.
There are many Christians who are still sitting in the backseat or at best, sitting in the passenger’s seat waiting for their turn to experience God through Christ. They do not believe that God will interact with them personally but believe that it is the acts of religion (coming to Church, saying the right prayers, giving their money, etc) that makes them have a relationship with God. This year my goal is to help us come into the knowledge of what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This is the year that we will have the opportunity to move from the backseat to the passenger’s seat and from the passenger’s seat to the driver’s seat. If you are already in the driver’s seat, this is the year you move from the driver’s permit to the full driver’s license. If you already have a driver’s license this is the year that you will expand on that license. Your license may qualify you to drive a car now, but we will move towards a license to drive a bus – so that you can literally carry more people. This year we will all learn to dig deeper into that relationship and through that confidence that comes from personally interacting with God through Christ, be able to reach out to others without being afraid. It is time to reach out to those who are lost, weary, frustrated and alone. We have something to offer, but before we can offer it, we must first understand it. So I ask you to help me make this year a year that we will be able to look back on and talk about what we did in the community, in the shelters, on our jobs and in our neighborhoods. If you have never invited someone that does not have a Church home to come with you, this is the year. So my first sermon series of 2010 focuses on what we are willing to pay to have that personal relationship with Christ. And I am not talking about the relationship that we have heard about, but the one we have experienced. What does it cost you to be in a real relationship with Christ? Last month, Rev. Welcome made the statement in her message that every relationship costs something and it cost something to be in a relationship with Jesus Christ. As she made that statement, God quickened in my spirit that this is something that we all need to take note of, especially when we consider the things we want to get done this year. As we go through this series I ask that you will begin to access where you are in your personal relationship with Christ and what it is costing you to have it.
At this time of year many of us begin the process of establishing our annual household budgets based on what we expect to have as income and what we believe our expenses will be. We plan out what we will need for our everyday expenses and what we will need for those little extra things we might want to do, like vacations and major repairs around the house. We also attempt to gage what we will need to set aside for a rainy day, what we call our emergency fund. In this process we establish our annual budget and have the difficult conversations focusing on what the cost will be to do those things we would like to do. Sometimes we realize that we might not be able to do everything but through the conversation there is agreement around how the funds will be utilized. In this series I want you to consider what the costs are for you to be in a true relationship with Jesus Christ. Have you established a budget for Christ this year; what you will spend on your relationship with Him?
I. Relationship Development and Costs
So let me begin with a quick overview of the development of relationships. In each step of the development of relationships, there are costs that are associated with them. We will start at the beginning to the relationship process and work our way through the decision to marry. Now, for those of you who are married (and those of you who desire to marry one day), think about the “process” you went through in choosing your spouse or if you are single, the process that you are going through now. This process always begins with the acquaintance stage. The acquaintance stage involves the first meeting and the gaining of initial knowledge about the person. During this stage we find out about the person’s background and possibly their interests and through this gathering of information, make a decision as to whether or not they could potentially become a person of future interest or will remain just an acquaintance. If we decide to further the relationship, we start the next phase of dating. During the dating phase, we are still getting to know the person, and deciding if this is really someone we can see ourselves spending our lives with. Since we are not in a committed relationship yet, we are both free to continue dating other people. As we continue to learn more and more about each other, at some point our feelings begin to change and we decide that this person could be the one. In order to find out for sure, we decide to date each other exclusively. At this point, we officially become committed to each other and enter the next phase of being “boy/girlfriends.” During this phase we only date each other; excluding all others as we focus on the one person and the possibility of spending the rest of our life with them. At some point the relationship either continues to progress towards marriage or there is a breakup. We will discuss the breakup prior to marriage and also revisit it after marriage. If the relationship continues to develop in a positive manner, we enter into the next phase which is the engagement. During this phase we begin to make plans for our future together while continuing to think about the commitment we’re making and what it will take to be in this relationship long term. We plan the wedding and make all of the other necessary preparations to enter into marriage. Following the engagement phase comes the final phase, marriage. Marriage is probably the most costly phase of the whole relationship because as long as the relationship is in place, it will continually cost you something. A good marriage is not easy to maintain and that is why there are many marriages where there is one additional phase called divorce. In these cases where the marriage ends, there is still a cost. For the purposes of this message and understanding what it costs to be in a relationship with Christ, these are the individual relationships that we will examine. So let’s start at the beginning with the acquaintance stage.
II. Getting Acquainted
The first stage, and probably the cheapest one, is the acquaintance stage. This is the stage where you meet someone and decide whether or not you want to enter into a long term relationship with them. The acquaintance stage begins with someone introducing you to the person; or you meeting them in a place where you both tend to visit. At some point after the initial meeting, a conversation started. The very first thing this relationship cost you is time. Even if you only talked with the person for 15 minutes and decided quickly that the relationship would go no where, you gave that brief, non-essential relationship 15 minutes of your time. During those 15 minutes, you also gave that relationship some of your mental capacity. To carry on a conversation with someone you just met takes a lot of mental capacity. You’re constantly thinking about what you need to say to carry the conversation forward. You’re also wondering what the person thinks of you, especially if you are attracted to them. You think about the things they are saying and if they may possibly be a good fit for you. You think about how they look and sometimes even what your children could look like if you were to marry them. All of these thoughts are generated through the amount of mental capacity we choose to give to this relationship. The final cost for this initial stage that I want to mention is money. During the acquaintance phase it is normal to go out on dates, sometimes even the very first meeting is a date set up by mutual friends. During this phase generally the man pays but there are times when each person may decide to pay their own way. Allocating your finances to a relationship takes some thought. You will not want to spend big bucks on someone that you have no interest in. Likewise, if you’re really attracted to someone, you will not want to take them to a fast food place as you attempt to impress them. So where you take them and how much money you spend is all a part of the impression you want them to have of you. If you want to see them again you go all out; but if you don’t want to see them again you spend as little as possible and get out as quickly as you can.
Some of us are in the acquaintance stage with Christ, even though we have been going to Church for years. We know of Him, but we have not spent quality time with Him in order to determine if the relationship should move forward. The chief priests and the elders of the people of Israel had an acquaintance relationship with Jesus. They knew of Him, had spent a little time with Him and had given Him a lot of their mental capacity – but they never accepted Him. For example, Matthew 21:23-27 records this interaction that Jesus had with them: “When He entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him while He was teaching, and said, ‘By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave you this authority? Jesus said to them, ‘I will also ask you one thing, which if you tell me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John was of what source, from heaven or from men?’ And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, ‘If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the people; for they all regard John as a prophet.’ And answering Jesus, they said, ‘We do not know.’ He also said to the, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
When you read these verses of Scripture closely you will discover that they did not really want to know the answer, they were attempting to trap Jesus. They knew He taught as one having authority because they had overheard Him teaching and had heard about Him through what was reported of Him by the people. However, since they were the leading “preachers and religious leaders” no one was supposed to do any teaching or preaching unless it was authorized by them. Because they refused to give Him any real time and mental capacity, they chose not to allow the relationship to grow and to keep Him as an acquaintance; or more likely, as an enemy threatening their way of life. Even though He was an acquaintance, they did spend money on the relationship. Remember, they paid Judas 30 pieces of silver to betray Him (Matthew 26:14-16).
Let’s examine one more acquaintance relationship that had a more positive outcome. In the 4th chapter of the book of John, Jesus had an interaction with a woman from Samaria. In the Old Testament, the city of Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel which fell to the Assyrians in 722 BC. The Assyrians settled “foreigners” into the land and over time the population became mixed with the descendants of the Israelites intermarrying with Assyrians and others. Most of these people they were marrying were idol worshippers although some continued to worship God. This is the group of people who became known as the Samaritans. When the Jews returned from exile in 539 BC and started to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, some Samaritans offered to help and were turned away because they were viewed as being “not true worshippers of God”. From this period grew the hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans which continued to exist at the time of Jesus. The interaction between Jesus and the woman from Samaria should never have happened because most Jews refused to enter the city of Samaria or to even talk with someone from that city. Jesus not only entered the city, but He had a conversation with one of its occupants. When Jesus came into the city, He went to Jacob’s well. While there, a woman of the city came to the well and Jesus asked her for some water. This surprised the woman. In verse nine the woman showed her surprise pointing out that He was a Jew and that Jews did not talk to Samaritans. After Jesus introduced Himself to the woman in verses 10-14, we get to the heart of this initial “acquaintance” phase of their relationship. Let’s pick this story up at verse 16.
“He said to her, ‘Go, call your husband and come here.’ The woman answered and said, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.’ The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.” (John 4:16-19) In this initial interaction, she perceived that He was a prophet because of what He had told her about herself. She did not reveal this to Him; He revealed to her what He already knew. This was the first test of her understanding of who He truly was. After this, Jesus continued to talk with her about what it meant to truly worship God; that it was not about a particular place, but about the heart and that it could be done anywhere. (Remember, there was still a battle going on between the Jews and Samaritans as to where the “real” worship of God could take place.) Now jump down to verses 25-26. “The woman said to Him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am He.” This woman had an understanding that the Messiah would come and what He would do once He arrived. When Jesus told her that He was the one, she immediately accepted Him at His word. She had made the decision immediately that she wanted a relationship with Him.
After she became acquainted with Christ through their conversation, she accepted that He was the Messiah. However, she did not keep this revelation to herself – she did exactly what we should be doing once we know that we know that we know. At the beginning to this whole conversation she did not know who Jesus was and therefore made no attempt to bring others to talk with Him. However, after she was sure He was the Christ, she immediately left Him to go and tell others. Verses 28-29 tell us that she left Him and went into the city and told the men there and asked them to come and meet Jesus. Although the men were curious, they “temporarily” accepted the woman’s words until they could confirm them. When the others came to Jesus, they asked Him to stay with them and He agreed. We do not know what all He said to them, but many accepted and believed in Him after they had gotten acquainted with Him. Now look down at verse 42. “And they were saying to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.” These people invested some time with Jesus and after spending two days with Him, accepted Him and wanted a relationship with Him. Before I close this message out, I want you to go back to verse 27 as I have one more point to make. Verse 27 records the following: “At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no said, ‘What do you You seek?’ or, ‘Why do You speak with her?” His disciples were amazed that Jesus was first talking to a Samaritan and especially a Samaritan woman. The culture of the time was that a man would not just openly have a conversation with a woman in public especially if both of them were alone. However, the disciples knew that Jesus was not about being “accepted” but about doing the will of His Father. Sometimes in order for us to get acquainted with Christ, we will have to surprise some of those close to us, especially if we want to move from just being acquainted to being in a full relationship with Him. Seeking a true relationship with Christ is not always popular because you may find yourself turning away from some of the things (and people) that once you enjoyed being around.
This morning if you are just acquainted with Christ; even though you may have known Him for years; I ask you to take a step to get closer to Him. Get out of the backseat and come sit up front with Him. It will cost you some time, some mental capacity and some trust, but it will be worth it. If we only allocate to Jesus just a few minutes of our time and very little mental capacity, our relationship with Him is in the acquaintance stage, regardless of how many activities we participate in at Church. Even though we come to Church each Sunday seeking more information, because we are not sure of the commitment we want to make to the relationship, we remain acquainted with Jesus. When we are only acquainted with someone we do not fully recognize who they are or what they are about. We do not fully understand their past or their future. Because we are only acquainted with them, there is a lot that we do not know about them and when asked, can only answer basic, elementary questions about them. All of this is due to our choice of not really knowing if we want to be in a relationship with Him and giving up more of ourselves. Finally, we do not invest a lot of our money in Christ when our relationship with Him is still in the acquainted stage. Yes we have a lot of reasons why we could not give more, but when you boil it all down, it is truly about the relationship. The stronger the relationship the more you’re willing to invest your time, mental capacity and finances. Are you just acquainted with Jesus?
Next week we will examine dating. May God bless and keep you is my prayer.
