The Main Thing

The Main Thing

Romans 1:3-4

ILL- The captain of the airplane came over the intercom and said, "Ladies and gentleman, I have some good news, and some bad news. The bad news is that we’re just a tad bit off course. As a matter of fact our instruments are not working and we have now idea where we are. To put it bluntly- we’re lost. But the good news is, we’re making excellent time."

What is the focus of life? Where are the real answers to life’s questions to be found? Where are we heading? These are questions that all of us have asked. Unfortunately, sometimes it is true that even when we think we know where we are going, often we do not end up there.

ILL- It is similar to the story of the man who bought a new hunting dog. Eager to see how he would perform, he took him out to track a bear. No sooner then they had gotten into the woods then the dog picked up the trail. Suddenly he stopped, sniffed the ground, and headed in a new direction.

He had caught the scent of a deer that had crossed the bear’s path. A few moments later he halted again, this time smelling a rabbit that had crossed the path of the deer. Finally the breathless hunter caught up with his dog, only to find him barking triumphantly down the hole of a field mouse. Too often we find ourselves looking in all the wrong places for the answers, only to find that they are not to be found.

The Bible clearly reveals that there is a single focus for life. All of history centers on this singular focus: the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, born of human flesh and revealed as the Son of God through His resurrection, is the central focus of the Gospel and of all God’s purposes in history. And He should be the central focus of our lives as well. The problem is that we have lost this focus. Someone once said, "The MAIN THING is to keep the MAIN THING the MAIN THING." Our problem is that we do not really understand what is the main thing. Do you understand what is the main thing?

Not only do non-Christians fail to discover the main thing but also Christians fail to keep the main thing the main thing. We talk about how Christ should be central, but we live as if He is not.

In fact, many times we do not live in any way that is noticeably different than those around us who do not know the Lord. But if Christ is really central in our lives, our lives should reflect that reality.

Because God has reached out to us, revealed His power to save us, and shown us the focus of His purpose for us through Christ, we must respond in faith by looking to Him as the central focus of our lives. Failure to do this results in Christianity without Christ, which is not true Christianity at all. It makes our lives powerless and w/o direction.

Our text captures a picture of Christ that is essential to understanding the heart of true Christianity. What Paul writes here will disclose the place Christ must occupy in our lives. Looking at this passage, let’s examine three revelations concerning Jesus Christ that underscore His place in history and in life as the main thing.

I. HIS PURPOSE. Vs. 3, Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh…

Jesus came for a reason. He had a purpose to fulfill.

When we speak of the man Jesus, we must always understand that we are speaking of the Son of God. This is what the phrase "His Son" means.

Philippians 2:6-7, Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

but made Himself nothing, taking the very form of a servant,

being made the likeness of man. (ESV)

This is a wonderful description of Jesus. It describes not only His equality with God but also His being made a man. In other words, God became flesh. This is what we call the incarnation of Christ. Why did Jesus become a man? Why did God take upon Himself human flesh? And how is this good news? In Jesus, God became a man in order to reach out to us. This is the wonder of the incarnation. It tells us that God made the first move. He reached out to us because He loves us.

The gulf that separated me from Christ, my Lord,

It was so vast the crossing I could never ford;

From where I was to His demand, it seemed so far;