I Want To Know Christ
Video – Who Is Jesus?
Luke writes in the 9th chapter of his gospel;
Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Luke 9:18-20 (NIV)
Prayer…
Throughout your life you have been and you will be asked many questions. NOW - some questions are not really that big of a deal? LIKE…
• Paper or plastic?
• Regular or decaf?
• Hot or mild?
• Medium or well done
• Coke or Pepsi
AND – other questions are pretty important, LIKE…
• Where are you going to college?
• What career to you want to pursue?
• Who are you going to marry?
• How many children are you going to have?
• Are you going to fight to restore that relationship or just give up and cash it in?
ALL – pretty important questions… BUT UNDERSTAND – there is one central question that we all must; deal, wrestle and struggles with for our entire lives… IT IS – a question that was asked 2,000 years ago… AND IT IS – a question that still continues to be asked today by that Galilean carpenter… “Who do you say I am?”
The most important question that you will ever be asked… THE - most important answer that you will ever give… IS – to that VERY question. Who do you say that Jesus is….?
THIS MORNING - we kick off our sermon series; I Want To Know Christ…
• It’s a message series that is going to change lives in radical and unbelievable ways… In fact it is going to transform them… something entirely different is going to emerge – when we are done. Caterpillar in, butterfly out.
AND LISTEN - some of the lives that will be changed are in this room right now… (hey take a moment to look around this room… Listen – some of the people you just looked at will not be the same people anymore)
AND – some of the lives this message series is going to radically transform… Have never even been in this room before…
AND - some of those changed lives just might be; your neighbors, co-workers, family or friends…
QUESTION – how can I be so confident that lives will really be changed in this place? Is it because I think that I am ‘all that’ when it comes to preaching?
NO – it’s because of what Jesus said during the final week of His life…When I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself… - John 12:32
NOW – Jesus was talking specifically about being lifted up on the cross… BUT LISTEN – I believe that we still can lift Jesus up today… WE CAN - lift Him up in our lives… in this church, in our worship, in our teaching, in our speech – in our lifestyles… (Him not our personal agendas or opinions)…
AND – when we do, people will be drawn to Him…
NOW THIS MORNING - I just want to introduce the series ‘I Want To Know Christ…’ AND – I want to do that by making 3 simple statements… The first statement is;
I. We Don’t Fully Know Him
Let me repeat that… “we don’t fully know Jesus…”
QUESTION – what do you think of that statement?
How does it make you feel (confused, angry, offended, insecure)?
Do you agree with it?
Does it kind of tick you off that I would even say such a thing?
I MEAN – you got up this morning, you came to church, you sang about Jesus… IN – a few minutes you will take communion and you’re your offerings. Things you have done for years… AND – then some guy up stands up front and tells you, you don’t fully know Jesus…
NOW A MAN - who had many personal encounters with Jesus.
A MAN - who spent 3 years one-on-one with Jesus being taught by Him in Arabia.
A MAN - who Jesus asked to personally represent him to the gentiles.
A MAN - who Jesus gave the power; to heal, perform miracles and even raise the dead.
A MAN - who had totally and radically given his life for Jesus.
A MAN - who was willing to go without food or water, be beaten, betrayed, whipped, stoned and put into prison… ALL - in order to live for Jesus.
A MAN - who Jesus asked to write 13 books of the N.T..
A MAN - who said, meant, embodied and lived the following statement… “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain…” 2,000 years ago from a prison cell, THAT MAN, the apostle Paul wrote;
Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ–the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
(Do you see what Paul is saying? He is saying that he has given up all the stuff that he used to do in his attempt to measure up to God… AND INSTEAD – he now simply accepts the righteousness that comes (by faith) and (through knowing) Christ Jesus… AND THEN – Paul continues with these words…) 10I want to know Christ - Phil 3:7-10 (NIV) NOT – ‘I know Christ…’
UNDERSTAND – if Paul’s life came down to one thing (and it did) knowing Christ… AND IF Paul understood that despite all that he knew (and he knew a lot)… THAT - he still didn’t fully know Him… How can we say that we do? I MEAN – how can our cry be ‘Jesus, yeah, I already know Him!”
NOW – don’t misunderstand me… I AM NOT – saying that you don’t know anything about Jesus. AND – I am not saying that what you know about Him has not impacted and changed your life… (brought hope, peace, joy, light and purpose, where there had been none)
I MEAN – I am with you on this… I know Jesus (though not fully)… BUT - what I know of Him, has changed my life… GUYS - I am not the same person today, that met Jesus on Dec 30 1979… AND - if you are a Christ-follower you are not the same person that you were the first time you met Him either.… AND GUYS – all this is good.
BUT LISTEN – there is so much more to KNOWING Jesus than anyone in this room could ever imagine. GUYS – here is the bottom line of what I am trying to say… IF – you want to have this message series, ‘I Want To Know Christ’ to impact your life in radical, unbelievable and incredible ways… THEN – you are going to have to take Jesus off the flannel board of your current understanding and out of the box of your preconceived and limited perceptions… AND – with intense passion search for Him once again…
YES – what you know and have experienced thus far is good… BUT – there is so much more! I love what Don Everts writes about this search to find the real Jesus…in the introduction of his awesome little book - called…”Jesus With Dirty Feet…”
“Who was Jesus? Did he really say anything worth listening to? Is there anything to this Christian religion that He started. Understand trying to get clear answers about Jesus is a bit tricky, because everyone and their dog has a different opinion about Jesus. Let’s see… there’s the traditional stained glass Jesus, my grandparents’ soft Jesus who blesses nice people who don’t smoke or cuss, the liberationists’ machine gun toting Jesus, the atheists’ papier-mâché Jesus, the finger waving Jesus, the limp-wristed Jesus…
You can see the problem.
Now we could just throw up our hands in frustration at all the conflicting pictures. Or I suppose we could just let others spoon-fed us some pre-chewed conclusions about Him. But life is too short for that. there must be a way to make up our own minds. Understand…clarity about Jesus will come not from preconceived notions and theories about Him but from a clear, specific look at Jesus Himself. But is that even possible?
Is it possible to see Jesus without all the clichés and stereotypes that have piled up over the last 2000 years? Can we wipe away some of the gloss of 20 centuries and see Jesus tangibly and in detail, as those folks on the streets of Israel saw Him…dirty feet and all?
AND LISTEN – that is what each of us need to do…
WE NEED - to get passed the clichés and stereotypes…
WE NEED - to wipe away the gloss of 20 centuries… of other people’s prejudices, opinions and agendas…
THAT – like thick layers of paint on a piece of furniture have covered up it’s real beauty.
WE NEED - to see beyond the coloring of our own past experience (what we have been taught, what we have believed ourselves, what we have seen lived out by those who claim to know him) and see Jesus for who He really is, in all His fullness… dirty feet and all.
YES – during this series I invite you to take a fresh look at Jesus…
BECAUSE – how we see him now is not who he fully is… JESUS – is so much more!
SURE – I know Him (some)… BUT – there is STILL so much more to this; indescribable, uncontainable, untamable all powerful God. AND THAT IS – we are doing this series and why I stand before you today and proclaim… “I want to know Christ!”
YEAH - I am so ready to once again (you see, for some reason I keep putting Him back on the flannel board and stuffing Him back in the box)… to take Jesus off the flannel board of my current understanding and watch Him grow, expand… AND - come alive;
• before me,
• in me
• and all around me!
NOW – there is one more thing I need to mention before we move on to the second statement…
IT - is a dangerous & costly thing, to believe that you have Jesus Christ all figured out…
AND – if you need proof of this, you don’t need to look any further then the Pharisees of the 1st century. These guys missed out on so much…
I MEAN – think about it…. Jesus (the Christ, their Messiah) was literally standing right before their very eyes… AND - they didn’t even know it… THEY – couldn’t see Him…. Why? because they had already carefully and in permanent marker defined the Christ, in their own minds…
FOR EXAMPE - in Luke 7 these guys watched as Jesus forgave the women who anointed His feet with perfume of all her sins… BUT – they refused to seek that same forgiveness… THINK ABOUT IT – they are in the very presence of the one who COULD and WOULD forgive every sin in their lives and the don’t even ask Him.. WHY?
Because - the Jesus on their flannel board of understanding, The Jesus that they had (domesticated, declawed and tossed in a box and closed the lid) would never consider letting a woman like that even touch Him… So obviously he could not be the Christ…
QUESTION – have you so carefully and in permanent marker defined Christ in your own mind such that you have severely limited who He is and what He can do in and through you?
Yes it is dangerous & costly to believe that you have Jesus Christ all figured out…
Get It?
Statement #1; We don’t know who Jesus fully is…
Statement #2;
II. Jesus Is A Hard Guy To Pin Down
One of the books on my favorite books about Jesus is written by a guy named Leonard Sweet and it is called; “Jesus Drives Me Crazy…” NOW - the premise of the book is just that… THAT - Jesus drives His followers crazy… HE – is so unpredictable, so hard to pin down…
I MEAN – just when you think you have Jesus figured out… OUT – of nowhere He suddenly pulls a 180… UNDERSTAND - nearly everything that Jesus said and did is unpredictable – you never really see it coming…. It’s the antithesis of conventional thinking… Jesus said that…
• The way up is down
• The way in is out
• The way first is last
• The way of success is service
• The way of attainment is relinquishment
• The way of strength is weakness
• The way of security is vulnerability & openness
• The way of protection is forgiveness (even to 7 x 70)
• The way of life is death – death to self, society, family
• Know your strengths. Why? Because that’s the only way that you can lay them down.
• God’s power is made perfect…where? In our weakness.
• Want to get the most? Go to where the least are.
• Want to be free? Give complete control to God.
• Want to become great? Become least.
• Want to find yourself? Forget yourself.
• Want honor? Think of others more then yourself
• Want to ‘get even’ with your enemies? Bless, love and pray for them
AND NOT ONLY– were the things that He said U-turns from the way the world thinks… BUT - so were the things that Jesus did.
• THE CREATOR – leaving heaven to become one of us…
• THE KING – coming to serve and not be served
• THE – always existing creator, the great and mighty one, dyng on a cross, for a sinful people…
QUESTION – how do you pin down a guy who is so unpredictable…
I MEAN – talk about unpinnable…
• What good shepherd would risk the survival of 99 safe sheep to find the one sheep that was lost?
• What employer would pay last-minute workers the same wage as those who had worked all day?
• What father would throw a huge party to welcome a son who blew his entire inheritance?
• What bank would reward investors who risked their clients money in the futures market while rebuking those investors who played it safe, took no risks, but protected the money entrusted to them?
• What guest would wait until the end of the party to surprise the hosts with 180 gallons of the best wine they would ever taste?
• What kind of man would forgive & pray for men who were driving 7 inch spikes into his body…
YES – our Jesus, is unpinnable and unpredictable…
I MEAN…
• ONE DAY - Jesus talks about peace… THE NEXT DAY - He tells His disciples to go buy some swords…or is making a whip and overturning tables in the temple
• ONE DAY - miracles seem to flow from Him (sometimes without Him even knowing who was healed)… AND THE NEXT DAY – His power is blocked by the people’s lack of faith.
• ONE DAY – Jesus calls out and encourages men to follow Him… AND THE NEXT DAY - He asks people who say that they want to follow him, “Are you sure” and then proceeds to discourage them…
• ONE DAY – Jesus tells those who he healed… “shsh…don’t tell anyone, I don’t want to draw attention… AND THE NEXT DAY – He stands up in the middle of the synagogue on the Sabbath and heals a man (like William Wallace picking a fight with the British… ‘hey Pete where is Jesus going’ where do you think - to pick a fight’).
• ONE DAY – when the crowds want to make Him King and He walked away… AND – on another day He rides right into the middle of the crowd as they shout “Hosanna,”
• ON – the way to the garden Jesus told the disciples that he was the way the truth and the life… AND – a few hours later when Pilate asked him the question, “What is truth,” Jesus says nothing.
• AND - we know Jesus does not approve of drunkenness… BUT – yet his very first miracle was to turn water into wine at a wedding …
As Walter Wink has said, “if Jesus had never lived, we would not have been able to invent him.”
YES – Jesus is a hard guy to pin down, a hard guy to put in a box… BUT – that doesn’t stop us, does it? I MEAN, WE STILL TRY – to define, tame, control, limit mold and shape Him into our own image.
QUESTION – do we know if we have done this? ANSWER – when Jesus always seems to agree with us… IN - the first chapter of his book, ‘Jesus Revealed,’ Mark Roberts writes;
By making Jesus fit our preconceptions, we obscure who he really was and who He really is today. We miss the point of his life and message, not to mention his death and resurrection. Moreover, if we invent a pseudo-Jesus who happens to be just like us, then we completely miss the opportunity to be transformed by the real Jesus, to become more like Him and to live the life He designed for us.
(Question – does anyone know what time is it?)
I’ll tell you what time it is.. IT - is time for us (it’s time for you), to take Jesus out of the box, it is time for us to stop trying to pin down, de-claw and domesticate the Lion of Judah. It’s time to…
• move past the clichés and stereotypes about Jesus
• take Jesus off the flannel board of our current understanding
• wipe away the gloss of 20 centuries
• move beyond the coloring of our own past experience… (what we have been taught by other people & churches; what we have believed ourselves and what we have seen lived out by those who claim to know Him
It’s time - for all of us to take a fresh look at Jesus…
It’s time - to see Him through a new pair of lenses!
It’s time - to embrace Paul’s cry as our own, “I want to know Christ!”
NOW – for the 3rd statement this morning….
III. Why We Need To FULLY Know Him
NOW - the reality that I don’t really or fully know Him was born on August 1, 2004. I was reading from the 14th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel verse 22-33.
Right away, Jesus made his disciples get into a boat and start back across the lake. But he stayed until he had sent the crowds away. 23Then he went up on a mountain where he could be alone and pray. Later that evening, he was still there. 24By this time the boat was a long way from the shore. It was going against the wind and was being tossed around by the waves. 25A little while before morning, Jesus came walking on the water toward his disciples. 26When they saw him, they thought he was a ghost. They were terrified and started screaming.
27At once, Jesus said to them, "Don't worry! I am Jesus. Don't be afraid." 28Peter replied, "Lord, if it is really you, tell me to come to you on the water." 29"Come on!" Jesus said. Peter then got out of the boat and started walking on the water toward him. 30But when Peter saw how strong the wind was, he was afraid and started sinking. "Save me, Lord!" he shouted. 31Right away, Jesus reached out his hand. He helped Peter up and said, "You surely don't have much faith. Why do you doubt?" 32When Jesus and Peter got into the boat, the wind died down. 33The men in the boat worshiped Jesus and said, "You really are the Son of God!" - Mt 14:22-33 (CEV)
QUESTION – why were the disciples terrified? Why did they scream… Why did they stay in the boat…?
GUYS - I think the answer is pretty obvious…. THE REASON – they were terrified, screaming and stayed on the boat… IS – because they did not know who the guy walking on the water in the middle of those crashing waves, was?
AGAIN - 8 years ago this familiar passage hit me like never before. It was one of those defining moments. YOU KNOW – a moment ever so brief, that changes everything… On August 1, 2004 - I wrote these words in my journal…
"Don't worry! I am Jesus. Don't be afraid"
"Lord, if it is really you, tell me to come to you on the water."
Father, I so need these words… I don’t want to stay in the boat. I know that there is another way to live and be. And right now I’m kind of huddled up in this boat and I feel that I am surrounded by crashing waves of; fear, doubt and uncertainty… (about: my ability, my sin, my doubts about my self) But hey it’s not about me anyway… it’s about Jesus!
Father I can really sense Peter’s cry – “Lord, I so want off this boat. I so want to live a different way. I so want to ignore the wind and the waves. I am so tired of just hanging on to the sides of the boat… looking at the place I long to be.
And father I hear you say, "Come on!"
LOOK UP… TIM/LAURIE… – I am convinced to the core of my being that we need to know who Jesus really and fully is… WHY – because people who know who He is;
• Get out of the boat
• They walk on water
• They have no fear
• They have no worry
• And they live the life they were created to live.
WHY… BECAUSE…
• As John says in the pre-ample to his gospel, ‘in Him is life…”
• As Jesus said on the way to the garden in John 14:6 – “I am the way the truth and the life…”
• As Jesus prayed in the garden, “NOW THIS is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” – John 17:3
QUESTION…
• Why are we still afraid at times
• Why do we still worry
• Why do we still have doubts about our worth, value and purpose
• Why do we still have some of the same struggles
• Why hasn’t Jesus impacted the way that we think, talk & live in a greater way
• Why do we (though we hate it) choose to stay in the boat
AGAIN – the answer is obvious… we DON’T know who the guy walking on the crashing waves of our lives ‘fully’ is!
THAT’S WHY – we are doing this series. SO THAT – we will see Jesus in: newer, bigger, fresher and bolder ways.
AND LISTEN – when I speak of seeing Jesus, I am not talking about seeing Him with the eyes of your head… NO – I’m talking about seeing Him with the eyes of your heart. TIM - did you know that you heart has eyes? Checkout what Paul wrote to us in Ephesians chapter 1;
18I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead… - Eph 3:18-20 (NIV)
In those verses Paul is praying that the eyes of your heart will be opened so that you can see;
• The hope to which He has called you (do you see that hope today)
• The riches of your inheritance
• And the great power available to you who believe
UNDERSTAND - there is a way of seeing, that is much greater than mere physical sight. AND – the Gospel writers make it clear that sometimes even though people saw Jesus physically, they did not really see Him. CHECKOUT – what Jesus said about some people who had just listen to Him tell them His story of the farmer and the seed… (BUT – didn’t get it!) “Though seeing, they do not see” – Mt 13:13
IN – other words…they only saw Jesus with the eyes of their head and not the eyes of their heart… I LIKE - what John Piper writes in his book; “Seeing And Savoring Jesus Christ;”
Everyone can read stories of Jesus and “see” the portraits painted by the words of those who knew Him. But not everyone sees truth and beauty and infinite value. Some see only myth. Some see foolishness. Some see offence. “Seeing they do not see.” It is as though a child should look at a Michelangelo and prefer a comic strip.
Savoring Jesus is the response to seeing Jesus with the eyes of your heart. When you see something as true and beautiful and valuable, you savor it. That is, you treasure it. You cherish and admire and prize it. Spiritual seeing and spiritual savoring are so closely connected that it would be fair to say: If you don’t savor Christ, you haven’t really seen Christ for who he is If you don’t prize Him above all things, you haven’t apprehended His true worth…
LISTEN – the point that I am trying to make this morning, is that you & I have not really seen Him… Not to the degree that he wants to be seen by us… AND [Tim…] - John Piper is right seeing always presides savoring… UNDERSTAND – in a lot of ways the Jesus we see is like the Jesus on this flannel board…
• Flat
• Small
• And 2 dimensional
AND – this is not good… THIS – is not the Jesus that we need. This is not the Jesus to cherish, admire, live reckless lives of abandon for and prize about all things… NO – we need more, and Jesus is MORE! So much MORE!
HEY – have you noticed that a lot of people in our society are going through an identity crisis. I MEAN - the question that a lot of people are asking is ”who am I.” AND - many in an attempt to answer that question go on a journey to find themselves.. THEY – take a trip, pursue a relationship, change locations, try some thing new… all in an effort to answer this question to their identity.
BUT – (do you know what?) I am convinced that this is the wrong question to be asking. AND – it always has been. Over 3,000 years ago an 80 year old man on a mountain in the Sinai desert asked the same question. Moses was standing before the burning bush -- his sandals were off because he was standing on holy ground (and he was having an identity crisis).
READ EXODUS 3:7-10
MOSES – response…. ‘WHO AM I THAT I SHOULD GO TO PHARAOH AND BRING THE ISRAELITES OUT OF EGYPT..’"
AND - do you know what? God did not answer Moses question as to his identity (He did not say, “Moses, this is who you are.” INSTEAD - HE told hims (I mean, it’s the very next verse – it’s the answer to Moses’ question… though not the one he was looking for….
God said “I (that would be I AM) will be with you…”
UNDERSTAND – Moses’ fundamental problem, man’s fundamental problem (your fundamental problem, my fundamental problem) is not a "self identity crisis" -- it is a God identity crisis.
BOTTOM LINE – if you want to know who you are… THEN – you need to know who God is.... UNDERSTAND – when you find out who Jesus really and fully is -- then and only then will you know who you are...
AGAIN – that is why we are doing this series….
SO – it’s done. We off. The lines have been cast off and we have set sail. It’s April 22, 2012… AND - we are a journey as ancient as time itself… A – journey to seek and see the unseen!
AND – let me tell you when we see the unseen… when we see Jesus is all of His Glory….
We will savor Him
We will prize Him above ALL other things
AND – not only will we see and savor Him, but we will reflect Him…
So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. – 2 Corinthians 3:18
Time of invitation… God invites you this morning to….
