Who Jesus Is Series

Who Jesus Is

John 14:1-6; Colossians 1:15-17

Rev. Brian Bill

September 23-24, 2023

Many years ago, an article appeared in the Washington Post about a new church in the state of Maryland. Using market research and focus groups, this church designed weekly services which deliberately de-emphasized Jesus Christ. One of the founders of the church said, “The sad fact is the name of Jesus Christ has become for many people exclusionary.”

Using Hindu and Zen, intermingled with a few verses from the Bible and recorded music by Willie Nelson in their services, one leader summarized their mission, “We’re enabling people to discover God themselves, maybe through Jesus, maybe through Buddha, maybe through any number of ways.”

We live in a pluralistic culture where it is commonplace to believe there are many different ways to God. The idea is that God, however you define Him, is on the top of a mountain and we can reach Him by many different roads. Everyone will eventually get to the top and it doesn’t really matter what path you choose to get there.

Last week we learned that the story of God is all about the glory of God and the unfolding of the gospel. We focused on the grand story of the Bible:

• Creation

• Fall

• Redemption

• Restoration

I want to pass along an evangelism method based on this metanarrative. Pastor Chris and I referenced this on the latest episode of Edgewood’s 4G podcast if you’d like to learn more. When Hannah was in high school, she went to New York with Spread Truth Ministries to do evangelism. She was taught to utilize four questions which go along with these themes.

• How do you think the world began? (Creation)

• What do you think went wrong? (The Fall)

• Is there any hope? (Redemption)

• What do you think happens when we die? (Restoration)

The main subject of the entire Bible is Jesus Christ. Listen to what Jesus said about Himself in John 5:39: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.” In Luke 24:27 we read, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”

How many of you have seen or used a red-letter Bible, where all the words of Jesus in the New Testament are printed in red? Now imagine an Old Testament where every reference, every prophecy, every shadow, every image, and every allusion to Christ appeared in red. One author put it like this, “If such a red letter First Testament existed, it would glow in the dark.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer remarked, “It could light up a living room.”

If you’re a parent or a grandparent, I want to recommend a book called, “I See Jesus,” which focuses on the shadows of Jesus we can see in the Old Testament. Check out Colossians 2:17: “These are a shadow of things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” I also recommend “No Other Gospel” by Alisa Childers. We have copies of both available for purchase at our brand-new Edge Bookstore located to the right of the Edge Café.

Our focus today is on who Jesus is. As part of my preparation, I listened to an Alissa Childers podcast in which she interviewed Jason Jimenez about his new book, “Hijacking Jesus: How Progressive Christians are Remaking Him and Taking Over His Church.”

By exposing the phony christs peddled by progressives, Jimenez shows why we can trust the Jesus of the Bible. Progressive churches have fabricated a new Jesus so different from the real Savior that their faith can hardly be called Christianity. Many teachers and churches now offer a version of Jesus which emphasizes friendliness, acceptance, inclusion, and tolerance. In essence, some have made Jesus into a bobblehead who simply nods at everything we do. Since we see Christian leaders deconstructing and even sliding into rank apostasy, we shouldn’t be surprised that many are making Jesus into their own image.

Lest we think these false and faulty beliefs of Jesus are just “out there,” the Edgewood State of Theology Survey from this summer revealed we need to address some of our own doctrinal deficiencies.

Consider Statement #8: God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

• Only 70% strongly disagreed with this statement.

• 45 people either strongly agreed or agreed with the statement.

• 69 individuals were unsure how to answer.

While I recognize some of the questions in the survey may have been unclear or confusing, we must be diligent to get our doctrine correct. We see this exhortation in 1 Timothy 4:16: “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.” Jude 3 calls us “to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”