As Christians, we are always energized when we see others coming to Christ and surrendering their own wills over to His will for them. But as glorious of a thing as that is, it is also the main reason why more people do not come to Christ: Because they would have to surrender their own wills to someone else over them and they do not want to do that because it is too uncomfortable. That and the fact that we always seem to trust ourselves more than we trust anyone else.
For instance, when my son first got his driver’s license, the inevitable day came when he wanted to borrow the car and go to a friend’s house. Down deep, I knew I had to force myself to let him have it after a series of last minute instructions, but the truth is, I did not want to give the keys to him.
Why did I feel that way? Because I knew how I drove and I trusted that, but I did not really know how he would drive and therefore, I did not fully trust him yet. Well, that and the fact that I am his father and I have the instinct to protect my children from all things bad.
But unless we take that giant step and surrender to Jesus’ authority over us, we cannot become Christians. It all boils down to a simple matter of having the ability and willingness to trust Him. And if we do not really take the time to try and know Him, we will never be able to trust Him.
So, with that in mind, I would like to introduce you to the One I call, My Jesus.
I will begin at the Cross. We all know that just before He died, He uttered the words “It is finished.” Well, those aren’t the exact words He uttered. Factually, Jesus said, “Testelstai!” That does mean “it is completed”, but it means so much more, too. That word is only found two places in the New Testament:
In JOHN 19:28 it is translated,
“After this, when Jesus knew that all things were now “completed”, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, He said, ‘I thirst.’”
Two verses later, in verse 30, He utters the word himself: “Then when He received the sour wine Jesus said, ‘It is finished,’ and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”
And so, we find that Jesus was not only saying “it is over”, He was saying, “It is complete with no further obligation owed”, and “the price has been completely paid in full.”
What Jesus said was not to be construed as a cry of defeat as He hang there dying, but a glorious shout of victory of what He was accomplishing as He hang there, giving up His very life for those He had created. A love so intense and so in-depth that we, as His creation, do not even have the ability to fully understand it.
And even though we have dimmed our spiritual memory of that occurrence, it is necessary that we understand His sacrifice means just as much to us today as it did the day He made it. There has never been a diminishing of the importance or the mercy found at the Cross. And just as Jesus spoke the words “It is completed”, God the Father was saying, “It has been fully accepted.”
Now, what happens when a person pays off a long standing debt? That person gets a receipt and the receipt will have printed on it the words, “Paid in full”. We owed that debt we could not pay, so Jesus stepped in and paid that debt He did not owe . . . all for our sake so we could be reunited with God the Father.
Why did He have to do that? Wasn’t there some other way we could be united? The answer is a terrifying “No!” Back when Adam and Eve turned their backs on God, they found themselves naked in all physical and spiritual ways. God had to cover them because He loved them. So He fashioned clothing from an animal’s hide to cover their physical nakedness. But the animal’s blood covered their spiritual nakedness.
Sin requires a death to me made. God cannot look upon sin, so therefore, He cannot look upon His own because we have been immersed in and covered with sin. The only way He can cast His gaze upon us is to somehow cover us.
In the Old Testament, they had one day a year called the Day of Atonement. On that day, the priests would gather two goats and in the midst of the people, they would slay one goat. That goat’s blood would then be painted on the tips of the live goat. That live goat was called the “scapegoat”. The blood represented the sins of all Israel, and the scapegoat represented the One who carried all of our sins for us.
After the blood was painted on the live goat, the goat was then turned loose to go out into the wilderness, never to be seen again. That represents how Jesus Christ took all of our sins upon Himself, and then carried them away from us, never to be seen by us again.
In short, He paid the full price of our sin; our debt. If He had not done that, you and I would still be in hock to the devil to this very day, and the interest Satan puts on sin is more than can be paid by us.
I said that because of the sin in our lives, God cannot even look upon us, but when we receive Jesus as Savior, we are covered by His blood, and when God looks at us then, all He sees is the loving blood of His Son, and then He invites us to be part of His personal family.
So, why do we still do everything we can to avoid God and keep our own wills if it is so much more beneficial to us to not do that? We avoid God because the devil has spread a lie and we tend to believe that lie. It states that God is a distant God and cannot be known on a personal level. That is why many people hear about Him and, to them, it is nothing more than reading a story in a book or seeing a program on TV. It might be interesting, but they are not personally involved so they do not have to do anything other than read it or watch it.
The devil says God is too difficult to understand, so we let His Word go in one ear and out the other without even trying to analyze it or think about it.
In Genesis 1:1, it tells us the basic truth: “In the beginning, God made the heaven and earth.”
That one verse is very easy to understand. God made everything. How simple is that? God is the Creator and we are not. So it is time we top acting like we are and start paying attention to the One who is.
To show you how important we are to God, think upon these things: God made everything else by His spoken Word. But when He made man, He got down into the clay and formed us with His own bare hands. And once He formed us, He personally blew the breath of life into us. How is that for being close and personal? He is not distant from us at all.
And there is something else, too. He did not create man until He had created everything else. He waited until He had the perfect place for us to live before He made us. How loving is that? How thoughtful is that? How simply wonderful is it that our Creator made it that easy for us? And how did we repay Him? We turned our backs on Him so we could focus on our own desires instead of all that He had done for us. He wanted our love. We gave Him our selfishness.
We did not realize that with blessings come an accountability to be responsible for them. Man proved he could not be responsible enough to be accountable. And when we chose to turn our backs on God, we soon found out the definition of the word “consequences”.
If you ask many people if they believe in God, they will either say “No”, or they will give you some comfortable story of something they believe in that has nothing to do with God. But if you then ask them if they will go to Heaven, most will say, “Yes.” Let me say this right now: If you really believe in God, you will believe what He says, and if you believe what He says, you will believe every Word in the Bible.
And in 1 JOHN 2:22-23, it clearly states,
“Who is the antichrist? Is it not the one who denies the Son? If you do not have the Son, you do not have the Father, but those who have the Son also have the Father.”
Let me explain this. Antichrists do not go to heaven. God will not let His enemies into His home any more than you or I will let our enemies into our homes. And if you do not have Jesus in your heart, you do not have God in your heart. Period.
We cannot have our cakes and eat them too. We must surrender fully to God and let Him have supreme authority over us, or we will not receive any of His promised rewards, spiritual or otherwise.
There is no third or fourth choice. You choose to do what God wants you to do, or you choose to do what He does not want you to do. And the consequences of a bad choice being made here does not show God to be a punisher. It shows that He is a just God who keeps His word.
Adam’s disobedience got him thrown out of the Garden of Eden and banished to the world. The garden was the perfect place God had made for mankind. The world is the dangerous place where Satan has temporary dominion. We know this, yet we continue to turn away from God and do what we want to do, not what God wants us to do.
And what does God do in the face of our continued rejection? He still loves us and He still pursues us. So much for the theory some have about God being mean and sending us to hell. Another truth is He has never sent anyone to hell – yet. We send ourselves to hell by the rebellious attitudes we have against God and the consequences of our wicked decisions.
What would you do if you knew someone who continually turned away from you; quit talking to you; denied your very existence; and even made fun of you and ridiculed you? Invariably, we would draw the line and start using some good old fashioned “tough love” wouldn’t we? We would say, “Enough is enough! When you get your act straight, come back. Until then, I have nothing else for you!”
One thing is known: In such cases, we would not be willing to pursue the person in total love like God pursues us for doing those things to Him. And there is no way we would let our son be put to death to help such people! God is the only One who could ever do that, and He does that because His greatest desire is to have us, His creation, love Him and rely on Him. He asks nothing else from us.
And through the sacrifice that Jesus made for our sake, He became the most important person to every walk the face of the earth. Now, if you were given the opportunity to introduce Jesus to the world, how would you do it?
Steve Harvey is a comedian and a television game show host. He is also a Christian. He said if he were given the chance to introduce Jesus, he would do it this way.
He would build the biggest stage on earth and he would equip that stage with the loudest microphones and biggest monitors that have ever been made. He would stand behind that microphone and say:
“Ladies and gentlemen! It is my highest honor and unique privilege to introduce someone people for the last 2,000 years have all heard about. His name is written in every heart, and every name is written in the palm of His hands. Even though we may never have seen Him, we all know how He feels to us.
“He has so many accomplishments, it would take eternity to list them all. He has done the impossible time after time and He comes to us by way of heaven, through a manger. His mother is still remembered throughout the world and His father is the author of the most read book in existence. He has hosted the world’s largest picnic with just 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread, and even had left overs when everyone had eaten their fill.
“He has walked on water and has turned water into wine. He has healed the sick and raised the dead.” And then he would introduce Jesus to the world.
That is how Mr. Harvey would do it. He would use all man-made items and rely on man-made introductions.
I began today’s message by saying it is hard to surrender to Jesus because most people do not really know Him well enough to trust Him with their personal wills. And they don’t know Him because the devil has kept every person he could from telling them who Jesus is.
So, who do you see Jesus as you look into descriptions of Him in the Bible? Let me spend a few minutes telling you who I see.
He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is my Creator and is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the beginning of all and will be here at the end of all. Jesus is the bright and morning star, the Rose of Sharon, and the ruler over everything in existence.
The sound of His voice is in everything He created, and everything He created was created for us. When I see Jesus, I see a life that can never be copied; a righteousness that cannot be tarnished. Among His gifts to us are a pace that will never be broken; a rest that will never be disturbed; a joy that cannot disappoint and a glory that cannot be saddened.
I see a light that will never be darkened and a perfection that will never be ruined. There is no need He cannot meet and no hurt He cannot heal. There is no soul He cannot love and no sin He cannot forgive. There is no person He cannot save.
My Bible says my Jesus is the King of the Jews and King of Israel. He is the King of righteousness and the King of all ages. He is certainly the King of Heaven, the King of glory and the Hope and the Way of every believer.
Jesus has a love that has no limits. He is faithful and full of the grace that is filled with power. He is merciful, loving & forgiving. He has never rejected a plea for help nor a plea for salvation. He is Jehovah Jirah; my Provider and my Blesser. Is my Mater, my path to deliverance, the author of all truth and He is my King!
He is literally the greatest man who ever lived. And He is the Christ of Heaven. He is unequaled in what He does and gives strength to the blind, and forgiveness to the wicked. No matter how hard you try, you have no life without Him and you have eternal life with Him.
The Pharisees hated Him, but could not stop Him. Pilate could find no fault in Him and Herod could not kill Him. Death could not keep Him and the ground could not hold Him. Jesus is the Lion of Judah, the healer of wounds, the hedge of protection, the solid rock on which we have a foundation, and He is the lover of my soul.
Who is Jesus? He is the only highway to Heaven and gateway to glory. His mercy is permanent and His burden is light. And His great love for us cannot be measured.
I have just described the Jesus I know and trust, the One who saved my soul. He is the One I worship and the One I follow. And that is the One you need to know personally if you expect to go to heaven.
1 JOHN 2:22-23 tells us that if a man denies Jesus, it is impossible for him to know God. Now, if we are serious when we claim to be Christians, how can we NOT follow Jesus, the One we say we believer in?
In closing, let me tell you about a famous tightrope walker of over 100 years ago. His name was Charles Blondine. His greatest feat was when he stretched a wire 2 miles long across Niagra Falls. It was 160 feet above the water.
Once in place, he pushed a wheel barrow from the American side to the Canadian side of the Falls and back again. The crowed cheered when he asked them if they though he could do it again, except with a person in the wheelbarrow. How excited they were.
But the crowd grew deathly quiet when Blondine asked if he could have a volunteer to sit in the wheel barrow. Seems they believed He could do it, but just not enough to put themselves at risk in doing it with him.
Too many Christians are like that today. They believe in Jesus Christ, but just not enough to get personally involved with Him.
As Mr. Blondine waited, one man finally stepped forward and volunteered to get in the wheel barrow.
Let me ask you a question. Where are you this morning? Are you standing in the crowd, refusing to volunteer, or are you walking towards the wheel barrow? If you are in the crowd, are you waiting for someone else to come forward and volunteer to do what you should have been doing?
INVITATION
