Are You Fully Lifting Up Christ?
by Joe Mack Cherry
I. Introduction
A. Do you believe God has your back?
1. Really, do you believe He has your back?
2. Can you think of a time when you knew that only He could help and He did?
3. Were you willing to tell others or were you be too uncomfortable to say anything?
B. It is easy to quote scriptures about God helping others.
1. Rom. 12:19 – “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is Mine, I will repay sayeth the Lord.”
2. Luke 18:7 – “Shall not God avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to him, though he bears long with them.”
3. I’m full of questions today. Do you believe this?
4. The OT is chocked full of examples that we all know.
a. In I Kings 18, Elijah stands down the 450 prophets of Baal, God kills them and then he (Elijah) falls into a depression. In the early verses of I Kings 19, Jezebel tells Elijah she was going to kill him. In the latter verses of the same Chapter God tells Elijah there are 7,000 waiting to help protect him of which he wasn’t unaware.
b. Before Elijah, God parted the Red Sea. The COI thought they were goners!
C. Sometimes, we see what God has done for others.
1. Our Pastor Jack Martin!
a. 12 years after the doctor pronounced a death sentence on him, he’s still going.
b. Hezekiah is another biblical example.
2. God works in realms outside our purview.
II. Body: Jo 12:32 – “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me.”
A. What does it take to lift Christ up?
1. I’m speaking to those who have already named the name of Jesus.
2. We must be familiar with scripture.
a. II Tim. 2:15 – “Study to show thyself approved unto God” and others.
b. I Pet. 3:15 – “Be ready always to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that lies with in you.”
3. It takes more than just scripture.
a. You can memorize the whole bible and still not lift up Christ.
b. Knowledge misapplied or not spoken in love does not lift up Christ.
c. We need less church Nazi’s and more of those who teach the truth in love.
4. All this is not to say that preaching the Gospel is not important because we know that it was God Himself who chose the “foolishness of preaching” to bring the good news to a lost and dying world.
B. Lifting up Christ can be heavy work.
1. Think about the Apostles and 1,000’s of Christians in the early church.
2. They were persecuted to the point of death.
a. Beaten
b. Used for entertainment in the Colosseums.
c. Used as torches by people like Nero.
d. They were mercilessly and needlessly crucified.
3. There conviction was their witness.
a. The Greek word for witness is where we get our word “martyr”.
b. It doesn’t get much heavier than that.
4. Being ridiculed for our belief one thing, resisting the call to renounce Christ in the face of death is another.
C. In Lifting Up Christ We must Witness!
1. People in this world are hurting and desperate for the truth.
2. What drew you to Christ is your witness.
a. Beating an addiction(s).
b. Realizing you don’t have all the answers.
c. Learning that money isn’t the cure all, end all.
d. Anything that had to be replaced by Christ is your witness.
e. Every one of us has had to return to God like the COI and the Prodigal Son.
3. But I’m embarrassed of my past. None of us are proud of our mistakes but if sharing a mistake let’s others see that Jesus cares then isn’t it worth it?
D. Lifting up Christ Gives Us Two Opportunities.
1. Reminds us of what Christ has done for us.
a. This is a form of praise that pleases God.
b. Psa. 103 in the first few verses David reminds himself and the Israelites of all the things God did for them.
c. To not lift Christ up by telling others of what He has done for us is the equivalent to doing a disservice to our Lord.
2. Gives hope to strugglers.
a. When we tell others of what God has unquestionably done for us, they have proof of hope.
b. Heb 11:1 – “Faith is the confidence in what we hope for and assurance for what we cannot see.”
c. Strugglers need to know that God has our backs here on earth as well as a mansion in heaven waiting for us.
d. It is not right to preach solely a health, wealth, and peace gospel because life has its unavoidable things like death and hard times; but there is evidence in scripture of an extended life and financial blessings coming from God.
• Hezekiah
• Mal 3:7 – Jews had turned away/vs.10 – return to Me and there will not be enough room to contain the blessings.
e. We lift Christ up by telling who He is and what He can do for others.
3. Sometimes we are the only scripture or glimpse of Christ that others get.
III. Closing
Let’s all take the opportunity this week to lift Christ up and bring someone closer to Him. In doing this, we will bring glory to God.
