“MAKING MUCH OF JESUS” Heb. 9:27-28
FBCF – 8/21/22
Jon Daniels
INTRO – What are you living for? What’s your driving motivation in life? What are your priorities for living?
- Make a lot of money
- Success in career, school, athletics
- Good marriage – good spouse
- Strong home – good parent
- Be well-liked, well-respected
When you give your life to Christ, your priorities change. Not saying that you have to give up your desires to be successful, to excel in your field or at school, to make money, or build a career. Certainly, there are strong Christians who are very wealthy, who are leaders in the business world, medical world, political world, sports world, academic world. It’s just the that the TOP priority in life has changed, & everything else falls under this priority.
So what is that priority? Summed up in 4 words: Making much of Jesus.
If you’re a FBCF member, you probably – hopefully – recognize these words. Shortly after I got here 2 ½ years ago, the staff decided that we needed a short, succinct phrase that would sum up what we are about as a church. The phrase, “Making Much of Jesus” was born. It encapsulates what we want to do as a Church – what we MUST do as a Church as we seek to share the Gospel w/ those who are lost, & disciple those who are saved. Everything we do as a church must point toward making much of Jesus.
- Corporate worship services must make much of Jesus in the songs we sing in both our traditional worship services & in the Refuge contemporary service. The sermons must make much of Jesus
- Our preschool/children’s ministry & student ministry must make much of Jesus
- Every Life Group, on campus & off campus, must make much of Jesus
- Our deacons must make much of Jesus
- Our missions ministry must make much of Jesus
- Our discipleship ministry must make much of Jesus
- Our staff must all strive to make much of Jesus in their personal lives & in their work as a minister of the Gospel
- When we build a building, it must be constructed & dedicated to helping us make much of Jesus
- When we plant a church, that church must make much of Jesus in every way
If we don’t do this, then we are just playing church – going through the motions – just doing what we’ve always done just b/c it’s what we’ve always done.
- If we’re not making much of Jesus, then we are lost, b/c Jesus is the way
- If we’re not making much of Jesus, then we have no foundation, b/c Jesus the truth
- If we’re not making much of Jesus, then we are dead, b/c Jesus is the life.
It’s what we must do as a church. It’s what we must do as individual Christ-followers. It must be the top priority of our lives.
EXPLANATION – Hebrews 9:27-28
Someone once said that the Book of Hebrews was written by a Hebrew to other Hebrews telling the Hebrews to stop acting like Hebrews (https://www.gotquestions.org/Book-of-Hebrews.html). These early Christians were being persecuted by other Jews. As a result, they were slipping back into their old ritualistic observance of the Law to try to avoid the persecution.
But that isn’t what Christ-followers are called to do. We are called to stand firm in the face of persecution. We are even to expect the persecution will come. 2 Timothy 3:12 – “Those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
This awesome NT book warns us about several things in our Christian life:
- Don’t drift away & neglect your walk w/ Christ.
- Don’t harden your heart to the Lord when He’s trying to speak to you
- Don’t stop growing in your relationship w/ Jesus
- Don’t stop going to church & gathering w/ other believers
- Don’t refuse God when He’s speaking to you
All of those warning can be addressed in one way: Keep making much of Jesus! Keep Him as the priority of your life. Go all in w/ Him. Don’t shrink back from Him. Don’t quench His Spirit in your life.
APPLICATION – Every Christ-follower should be making much of Jesus in their lives.
Reasons we need to be making much of Jesus:
BECAUSE EVERYONE HAS AN UPCOMING APPOINTMENT – “…it is appointed for man to die once…”
Not trying to be morbid, depressing, grim, or pessimistic. Not trying to scare anyone or sadden anyone. Just truthful reality. 100 out of 100 people die.
- Got a flyer in mail from a local funeral home this week. Running a special on cremations. Crazy thing is my first thought was, “Hmmm…. that’s not a bad price!”
You & I have an appointment coming up – “appointed” – reserved, awaiting each of us – We’ve got a reservation.
- Make a reservation at a restaurant. If plans change you can cancel it.
- Make an appointment w/ your doctor. If plans change or you get better, you can cancel it.
You can’t cancel THIS appointment! You’ve got one life to live, & in this one life, you’ll have the opportunity to decide what you’re going to do w/ Jesus – accept Him as Savior & Lord of your life or reject Him & live your life w/out Him. This one life will end w/ an unerasable, un-cancellable appointment for every person.
BECAUSE EVERYONE WILL FACE THE JUDGMENT – “…after that [appointment] comes judgment…”
There’s no intervening status between your death & the judgment that will come. There’s no reincarnation. There’s no second chance. There’s no purgatory where you wait hoping that someone who’s still alive will pray hard enough, or pay enough money, or do enough good deeds for you to get out. Death comes to every person & judgment happens to every person.
Define the judgments to come:
- The judgment seat of Christ – 2 Corinthians 5:10 – “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” Every Christ-follower will be judged, NOT for their sins (that was accomplished on the cross for us by Jesus. He received all the judgment upon Himself for our sins). We will be judged for our works – how we used the time that God gave us to live for Him & serve Him. We will receive our rewards for living faithfully for the glory of God. “You’re preparing your report card.”
- The Great White Throne judgment – Revelation 20:11-15 – for unbelievers
We need to be making much of Jesus to prepare for the judgment that is coming for each of us. And we also need to be making much of Jesus to help others prepare for the coming judgment.
BECAUSE JESUS HAS PAID THE PRICE FOR OUR SINS – “…having been offered once to bear the sins of many…”
There’s only 1 Person who could pay the price – Jesus!
There’s only 1 sacrifice that was necessary – Jesus!
There’s only 1 way to be forgiven of our sins & saved – Jesus!
All the OT sacrifices were just shadows that pointed toward the coming of this one final sacrifice. All the OT sacrifices covered the sins of the people – Jesus’ once-for-all sacrifice puts sin away for good. Those OT sacrifices were for the children of Israel only – Jesus’ once-for-all sacrifice is for all sinners. The OT high priest would come out to bless the people – Jesus, our Great High Priest, will come to take His people to heaven.
We don’t make much of the OT sacrifices b/c they are no longer needed. We make much of JESUS b/c His sacrifice alone is what we need.
- When John the Baptist saw Jesus for the first time, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).
- Paul said in 1 Corinthians 5:7 that “Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed.”
- John said in 1 John 5:6 that Jesus came by the “blood” of His sacrifice.
- Peter said in 1 Peter 3:18 that “Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.”
BECAUSE JESUS IS COMING AGAIN – “[Jesus] will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him.”
When I was a kid, Gospel quartet at our church would sing. Mr. John Ed Crowe was high tenor. They’d sing “Jesus is Coming Soon.” Chorus: “Jesus is coming soon, morning or night or noon, many will meet their doom, trumpets will sound. All of the dead shall rise, righteous meet in the skies, going where no one dies, heavenward bound.”
Jesus IS coming soon! So we need to be making much of Jesus while there’s still time!
