3: TENDER & UNIQUE Like Jesus

The gospels tell how thousands would flock to see Jesus & listen to His teachings. What was it about Jesus that so many people were attracted to? What is it about Jesus that still wins the hearts of people all over the planet? The answer?

Jesus was a STUD - not how He looked, but who He was. Jesus was Strong, Tender, Unique, & Dependent. And we need to become more like Him.

Last night we talked about the Strength of Jesus and we could spend HOURS exploring how Jesus stood when no one else would.

Jesus is OUR ULTIMATE EXAMPLE, the One whose image we are being conformed into.

The purpose of our lives is to become more like Jesus.

We spent the rest of the time chewing on what it looks like to...

1 Corinthians 16:13 (ESV)

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

I told you there was more to it that we would tackle later. So, NOW is LATER. Look at the rest of this.

1 Corinthians 16:13–14 (ESV)

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.

Even in this part of the text we see that followers of Jesus are not only to follow His example to be STRONG, but also to be TENDER, to do everything in love.

Jesus was Strong, but He was also Tender. And WE are called to be TENDER LIKE JESUS.

For most guys this term causes us to squirm in our seat. Our minds immediately think “chick-flick” and we begin to tune out. We feel the sudden urge to watch some Rocky re-runs or other MANLY MEN kind of movies & sniff the sweaty musk of a locker room.

On the other hand, you need to know that one of the characteristics that is most attractive to the ladies is a man who can be TENDER.

Way back in kindergarten, my Caleb telling girls in class how pretty they looked. One girl asked, “Even me?” Caleb told her she looked pretty and the little girl lit up like Christmas lights.

God wants us to be Strong, but God wants us to be Tender. And once again, our example is our King. It makes sense that Jesus was STRONG but it almost seems the opposite to say that someone who is STRONG can also be TENDER - but Jesus certainly was. As a matter of fact it was this characteristic that attracted so many young families to Jesus as we’ll see right now.

When word spread that Jesus was in the area, parents were drawn to this teacher whose love of children had become known throughout the area. Jesus had healed lots of children. Jesus had held lots of children. And Jesus had raised several children from the dead. Families with young children came to see Jesus like what happens in December as children line up to see Santa. It was on one of these days that we read:

Mark 10:13a (NLT)

One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them.

The Talmud - Jewish commentaries on OT scripture - taught Jewish parents to bring their children to respected Rabbis for blessings and prayer. A father would bring his child to the synagogue and pray for the child himself. Then he would pass the child to the elders who would hold him and pray for God’s blessing on his young life. So the people bring their children to Jesus - a respected Rabbi for this loving task. But instead of welcoming children…

Mark 10:13b–15 (NLT)

But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him. When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his disciples. He said to them, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”

Whoa…Jesus rebuked His disciples for their lack of WHAT? Tenderness.

Can you believe that? After all the times that Jesus’ disciples saw Him interact with people of all ages, they still didn’t get it. They were so busy trying to play the part of the secret service agents that they were sending the mission field away.

ILLUS This coming weekend is the biggest shopping weekend of the year. Many of your parents will be shopping for sales items. On Thanksgiving my family has a tradition of eating together, sharing what we’re thankful for, watching football, going to an evening movie, and looking through the sales flyers for the best prices of the year. The next day we get up early to hunt down that great deal. And in the process, we’ll pass right by hundreds of other items that we don’t think are anywhere near as valuable.

TRANS And that’s what was happening back in our story. Somehow the guys Jesus was training had failed to learn that all people were valuable. They had placed a higher value on some than others.

Are we guilty of that? Are popular people more valuable than the people no one knows? Are high schoolers and college students more important than middle schoolers? Are adults more important than children? Are white people more important to us than black people?

Could it be that we place a clearance price tag on them? We just want to move them out of the store so we can get the more valuable merchandise in front? Could it be that we are guilty of doing exactly what the disciples of Jesus were doing?

Are we guilty of that too? Are we familiar with the stories about Jesus yet fail to see what matters most to Him - and should matter to us too?

Are we so busy with our own interests that we walk right past those who matter most to Jesus without even noticing?

That made Jesus angry with His disciples. I really think that Jesus would be angry with ME...with you too.

Then Jesus SHOWS THEM His heart…Jesus was TENDER.

Mark 10:16 (NLT)

Then he took the children in his arms and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them.

We’re just like the people Paul wrote to:

Romans 2:4 (CSB)

Or do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

It is God’s kindness - His Tenderness that led you toward Him. You realized you weren’t worthy and yet He went to the cross so you could be worthy. He loved us before we deserved to be loved. Yet you and I refuse to show that same kindness to others. While people from all walks of life were attracted to Jesus because He was tender...many of our lives aren’t attracting anybody...because we’re NOT showing that same Tenderness.

BIG TRUTH I’m most like Jesus when I’m Quick to be Kind (Tender)

We are never more like Jesus than when we are tender towards people who need a hand.

Saw a video that students took of other guys shaving the head of a young man with special.

We are never more like Jesus than when we forgive those who have harmed us.

Jesus was tender to prostitutes, tax collectors, and the diseased - the outcasts of normal society. He cared about the people that most quickly walked right past.

Romans 12:14–16 (NIV)

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

Live It!

Ask God to help you see every person through the eyes of Jesus. That happened the other day for me as I walked through Buccees - I looked at each face and remembered that this is a person Jesus LOVES.

Find one way to be kind to someone you know every day. Take their trash, hold the door, ask them to sit with you at lunch/church Find one way to be kind to one person you DON’T know this week.

BIG TRUTH I’m most like Jesus when I’m Quick to be Kind (Tender)

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Let’s take a quick break and find out how gifted some of you are....

Game Crazy Human Tricks (Facial Expressions, Impersonations, Sounds, etc.). This is to point to how every student is so Unique. (*I could do Marvin OR bark)

You guys are so UNIQUE…and so was Jesus.

Jesus was Strong, Tender, & UNIQUE.

But what does that mean?

In our culture everybody wants to be unique - different or rare...but they all end up looking like each other. Back in my day it was the rat tail, big hair, Jordache jeans, & parachute pants. In your day it’s about bed-head or sheep dog hair - highlights.

But Uniqueness doesn’t have much to do with what you wear or how you look. Uniqueness isn’t about the ink you get tattooed on your skin.

Uniqueness is a quality given to you by your Creator.

He designed you different from anyone else on the planet. You have different skills (musicians, artists, scholars, teachers, mechanics, construction, doctors, farmers, tech heads & athletes) You have different personalities (like crowds/small groups, outgoing/shy, dreamers/administrators, humorous/serious)

To be Unique is less about how you LOOK and more about how you LIVE - your skills, personality, attitude, thoughts and the decisions you make.

To be unique is to be exactly who God designed you to be.

And this is what made Jesus so Unique. He was going to play the part the Father had written for Him. He wouldn’t let the critics press Him into their mold.

PROP Play-dough stuff

And it wasn’t like Jesus didn’t get pressured to do what others wanted.

Jesus WAS pressured by His enemies.

Satan tempted to Jesus to take the easy road - instead of going through a painful death to redeem a few. Satan offered worldwide fame & power, right now. Isn’t this a trick he still uses today? Buy now...pay later. “YOU be in control - You deserve it. Don’t worry about the cost...you only live once!”

Luke 4:5–8 (CSB)

So he took Him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. The devil said to him, “I will give you their splendor and all this authority, because it has been given over to me, and I can give it to anyone I want. If you, then, will worship me, all will be yours.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.”

Maybe Jesus saw the power of all kingdoms from then until now and beyond. He could control all that - no suffering needed! He would be the King of the Earth! There was a price tag though - be pressed into the mold of His enemy and NOT fulfill the plans of the Father, so He refused the offer. And notice what Jesus countered with - SCRIPTURE.

The crowd tried to push him into their mold too. After they saw Jesus feed over 5,000 people they decided to elect Him king.

John 6:14–15 (NLT)

When the people saw him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, “Surely, he is the Prophet we have been expecting!” When Jesus saw that they were ready to force him to be their king, He slipped away into the hills by Himself.

Once again, Jesus wasn’t going to give into the pressure to compromise His mission. Like Satan’s cheap promise, they offered Him power and authority as King of the Earth - the easy way - no cross needed. Jesus knew this would have caused the Jews to revolt against the Romans and millions would be killed. Bigger than that, every person who ever lived would have died and gone to eternity without forgiveness.

It’s one thing when your enemy tries to trip you up. It is a different animal when your friend tries to make you stumble. And Jesus experienced that too.

Matthew 16:21 (NLT)

From then on Jesus began to tell His disciples plainly that it was necessary for Him to go to Jerusalem, and that He would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead.

Matthew 16:22–23 (NLT)

But Peter took Him aside and began to reprimand Him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!” Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

Once again we hear the lingering echo of Satan, “You can be king of the Earth - now!”

Jesus stood His ground against his enemies and the crowd.

Now the words cut deep because they came from the mouth of a friend - “You don’t have to die!”

It wouldn’t have cost nearly as much. But you and I would have no hope of eternal life.

Jesus didn’t want to be King of Earth. He wanted to fulfill the mission - to be King of Eternity.

Paul wrote about the suffering the 1st century Christians were going through for following Jesus. Then them the reason why he refused to be pressed into the mold of the world - the reason he and so many others were willing to be beaten, imprisoned, and killed. Here it is:

2 Corinthians 5:9–10 (NLT)

So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please Him. For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.

BIG TRUTH When I please God on Earth it matters for Eternity.

I’ve come to a pretty radical conclusion about why many “Christians” don’t live to please God. It’s really pretty simple. We don’t BELIEVE that it really matters to Him. We don’t BELIEVE we are going to stand before Him to give account of our lives.

How I BEHAVE shows what I really BELIEVE.

Are you Pleasing God or Pressed into the mold of culture? What do you really Believe?

How we treat others.

How we dress.

How we talk.

How we date.

How we treat our parents and other authorities?

What we watch & listen to.

The things we do on the weekend.

YEARS AGO I was able to spend several hours with a friend of mine in Sarasota.

Ryan is a firefighter who lives just down the street from my parents. Sharice is his girlfriend and they live together. Sharice claims to be a Christian but is a baby believer. I spent an over an hour chatting with them at their house - about Jesus and His resurrection, creation vs. evolution.

The next day I had breakfast with them and Sharice said, “After you left last night Ryan and I talked about how you probably thought we were living in sin...and we are.”

Sharice is concerned about Ryan’s eternal life. So later after Ryan had gone to the bathroom, I told Sharice there must be a difference in her language, her sexual purity - or Ryan would think he doesn’t need to change - because she is just like him.

The very thing she wants is the very thing she is standing in the way of. Unlike Jesus, she is being pressed into the mold instead of pleasing God.

Is that TRUE of YOU?

Live It!

Memorize 2 Cor. 5:9-10 and marinate in it every day this week.

Discussion Questions

Read 2 Cor 5:9 “...our goal is to please Him” Why is it easier to try to please other people than to try to please Jesus? Read 2 Cor. 5:10 “For we must all stand before Christ to be judged...” How would impact decisions you make if you really believed this? If how you Behave shows what you really Believe, where do you have room for improvement?

Discussion Questions

1.Why does it seem so strange that Jesus wants us to be both Strong and Tender at the same time? 2.Name some ways & reasons that followers of Jesus be more Tender than our culture. 3.How did tonight’s lesson challenge you to change?