Arrival - Prophet Jesus

If you are anything like me or my family especially around the Christmas season we have certain traditions that we do. On Christmas Eve we would always be able to open up one gift, and it was the mom gift and it was always pajamas we can wear that night. Another tradition my wife Karlee and i started when we had kids is the Christmas eve we make a birthday cake for Jesus, and on Christmas morning the kids come to our room first, we sit on the bed, read the nativity story and sing happy birthday to Jesus pray and then go celebrate. Everyone has traditions and churches have traditions.

Traditionally during Christmas we look and teach passages that have to do with Jesus’ birth narrative. We have Mary and Joseph going back to Bethlehem because a decree from the Roman governor was made to take a census. We would say God is calling you back to your home too…Or there is no room in the inn don’t let this Christmas season go by without letting Jesus into your life. Baby Jesus being born, Things like that, but we decided this year we wanted to do something untraditional, we wanted to look at what the arrival of Jesus brought to humanity. Jesus arrived as a baby but he grew up to be much more than that. The last few weeks we said Jesus arrived to be our King and our Preist, and today well, you will just have to see.

I remember a few years ago I was in a class and I was shown a video that you are about to watch. But this is what I ask of you, if you have seen it before please don’t ruin it for the people around you. Play the video (1:30) Be honest how many of you spotted the gorilla? What about the player leaving? Background changing? This man calls this the Monkey Business effect, but most physiologists call it the Selective Attention Test. The selective attention is defined by  “the process of focusing on a particular object in the environment for a certain period of time.” When you are laser focused on what you are looking at, you tend to miss the bigger picture. And once you are told what to look for you don’t miss anything.

I was thinking about this test this week and in the world today, both inside of the church, and outside of the church, Christian and non-Christian, strong biblical teachers and false teachers we have selective attention when it comes to Jesus. Certain things that may be true about Jesus, but in the action of only giving our attention to what it is we want to believe about Jesus we can potentially miss Jesus all together. Other times we have our attention set on a Jesus that does not exist at all, and that normally comes from a distorted view of scripture, cultural influence on our beliefs about Jesus or its what you want to believe about Jesus, regardless of if it is true or not. So here are a few different Jesus that have our selective attention on, some are half true some are not true at all.

Obi-Wan Kenobi Jesus – (Picture of Obi-Wan Kenobi) This fair haired, bearded, blue eyed white Jesus. This is the physical appearance most people think about when they think about Jesus. Never mind the fact that Jesus was born in the the Middle East, wasn’t white and would have been darker skinned, darker hair and darker eyes.

Progressive Jesus – I was thinking about calling this Hippie Jesus but I decided to go with progressive Jesus.  This is a false view of Jesus that he changes over the times to fit the cultural needs, He’s all loving, all accepting, all approving, of any type of sin or lifestyle, what he said in scripture was only for that time period and Jesus never judges. This denies the fact that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever more. This Jesus does not exist.

Boyfriend Jesus – This Jesus is one that always has to be close and if I feel the presence of Jesus, then I know I’m good with him, but if I feel like I’m not connected, not close then I must have messed up.

Bodyguard Jesus – This is the Jesus most people can put their attention on, that if you are a Jesus follower then nothing bad could happen to you, to your loved ones or family members. However what happens when deviation happens? You lose a family member, or a job, or get a cancer diagnosis? You begin to question your faith, and ask God why bad things happen to good people, and we forget that the foundation of our faith is the very fact that the Worst Possible thing happened to the best possible person. That it was through the death burial and resurrection of Jesus that we can have forgives of our sins and eternal life. I have to break it to you, this Jesus does not exist.

Guilt Jesus – This Jesus continually reminds us of our sins, or shortcomings and failures and guilts and shames us over and over and over again. Many people have their attention on Jesus and won't come to church because they are afraid that they will be shamed and guilted of their actions. Guilt Jesus does not exist.

Moral Teacher Jesus -  A lot of people in our world today have their attention on Jesus. That Jesus was a good moral teacher, but that’s it, he said some things that are outdated today, not always true, and you and pick and choose what you want to follow. He certainly didn’t die on the cross for my sins, but he did teach us how to live a good moral life and that’s a good thing. Although Jesus did teach moral principles, he was not what Christian’s claim he is.

So how do we then fix our attention on who Jesus actually was and what his arrival means for you and for me? How can we know what the true Jesus is? In the book of Hebrews in the first chapter in the first verse it says this, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times in various ways, but in these days he has spoken to us by his son who he appointed heir of all things.” As you read the Old Testament you will see books named Isaiah, Jeremiah, Obediah, Ezikel and so on and these were prophets, prophets had three main functions, they preform miracles and healing through God’s power, prophesy future events that God had in story, and they would be the mouth peice of God. They would speak the truth of God to the nation of God, and if people rejected the truth, it was not the prophets they were rejecting it was God himself.

So Hebrews tells us that God used to speak through these prophets, but now is speaking through Jesus. One of the things Jesus arrived to be is the supreme prophet of God. He would do miracles, he foretold future events, and he spoke the truth of God. Here is what you have to understand when it comes to Jesus, he was God incarnate, meaning, God put flesh and bone on and lived on this earth. Jesus didn’t just speak the truth Jesus IS the truth. What Jesus spoke, is truth, how Jesus lived is truth, what Jesus commands of you and of I is truth. This word is the authoritative word of God, which means it is the ultimate truth in our life, and in this world. It even says in gospel of John 1:1, “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God.” All these prophets of old are dead and gone, but Jesus lives and reigns which means that God hasn’t just spoken, God is speaking. God is speaking through Jesus. Everyone today wasn’t to hear a word from God, I tell them if you want hear a word, read the word. Through the truth of Gods word and the truth of Jesus, God is speaking to you and me today.

Jesus said this in John 14, “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” Jesus makes this extraordinary claim, that would have shocked his first century audience and still leaves his 21st century audience confused. That he is the truth, and he is the only way to have a relationship with your Heavenly Father. On that cold dark night of the very first Christmas, after hours of labor, when Jesus arrived on earth, Truth was born in human form. Jesus arrived to be our ultimate truth.

Here however is the tension in which we live in. We do not have a proper relationship with the truth. In this day in age, and the culture in which we live in there is no ultimate truth, rather everything is subjective. We hear phrases and maybe you’ve said it, “Well just live your truth” live your truth. What does that even mean when there is a culture of people who are all trying to live their truth eventually as Carlyle said in week 1 we are going to have kingdoms and ideologies crashing into each other. Live how you want to live, how you want to act, the lifestyle you want to have, live your truth. As long as the way you live does not impact the way I want to. Because when my subjective truth deters your subjective truth then who’s right?

I find it interesting then as Jesus follower if you are a Jesus follower, we know the ultimate truth. Yet we can tell people, “well thats true for me, but it doesn’t have to be your truth.” The truth of Jesus is not your truth or their truth it is simply the truth. And just because others don’t believe it to be true does not mean it stops being true, it just means they are denying the truth. For instance, do you know how many people still believe that the earth is flat? My goodness, there is a whole society of people who believe that the earth is flat, and they deny the science, deny the evidence, deny the truth. But just because they deny that the earth is round doesn’t mean it isn’t. Truth is Truth. And as Jesus followers we do not have authority over the truth, the truth has authority over us. We cannot live a Jesus centered life and live in subjective truth.

Jesus says I am the way the truth and the life that no one gets to the father except through me. He makes this exclusive claim that he is the only way to the father, salvation and Godliness. An exclusive claim, and this is where a lot of people would deny this truth and say that they there are many ways to God, or salvation, but Jesus says he’s the only way. Truth by definition is an exclusive. When you make a truth statement you are excluding all the opposite. Jesus says I am the only way which means he is saying there is no other way, you can’t earn it, you can’t achieve it, you can only get to the father and have life through Jesus. So that begs the question, “What truth did Jesus reveal so that we might have ultimate life in him?”

1: The Truth of our Sinful Nature:

It has been said that in all of the world religions, from Islam to Buddhism, Hindus and Mormons a like there is no more clear doctrine of sin and human beings sinful nature than in Christianity. It was the author James Stewart who said about Jesus, No one was half as kind and compassionate to sinners;yet no one spoke such red hot scorching words about sin. When you read the gospels and the rest of the New Testament that is, Jesus never once negotiated with sin. Never compromised, never once let to slide, but never once did a sinner feel condemned for it.

But Jesus arrived because we are sinful, it is not simply that we mess up, slip up, make bad decisions it goes much deeper than that. Not calling sin, sin diminishes its effect on our lives. Jesus speaks the truth and calls us to turn from our sinful state and live according to his will and word. The apostle Paul has a lot to say on this matter, Paul used to be called Saul and was a Pharisee who hunted down and murdered Christian’s until he had an encounter with Jesus believed and wrote1/3rd of the New Testament. In Romans he under the guidance of the Holy Sprit clearly lays out our sinful nature. Romans 1 starting in verse 18

18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

He goes on to say, 28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Did we miss anybody? This is a scathing indictment of my heart and of yours. This is a scathing indictment of the current culture we live in. It ushers in the truth that you and I have a sinful nature, we just don’t mess up, fall, or “not that bad” it forces us to look in the mirror of our hearts and our souls and confess we are totally depraved. It makes us realize that we can’t just pick ourselves up by our moral boot straps and earn our way back to God. It makes us realize the startling reality that we are sinners who are lost and need a savior.

It was the great theologian G.K. Chesterton who has forgotten more about the Bible and Jesus then I will ever know, one of the most godly Jesus centered men to ever walk the earth. He was asked by a London reporter in the early 1900’s “What’s wrong with the world?” And Mr. Chesterton replied with a four word response. “Dear Sir, I am.” I am. A man who many look up tot this day looked inside of his heart and soul and looked at the truth of Jesus and knew his sinful nature.

Paul would go on to say in Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  The truth of Jesus is we cannot save ourselves. And we are in desperate need of saving. But listen, even through we are sinner, God does not leave us there and we come to our second truth Jesus arrived to bring.

2: The Truth of God’s Unrelenting Grace:

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and all are justified freely, by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. - Romans 3:23-24 I said earlier that there is no other religion in the world that has such a clear doctrine of sin as in Christiniatiy, but there is absolutely nothing like the world like the Doctrine of Grace. Nothing is like it, nothing comes close. God does not stiff arm you away because of your sin instead he calls you close because of Jesus. He does not leave you In your sin, he frees you from it. He does not turn his back on you rather he runs after to find you. You can be stuck in your sinfulness and repent and turn and believe in Jesus and you have new life. The fact that God looked at me and he looked at you and the he looked at the fallen state of our world that is separated from a relationship with him and he sent his son Jesus to die on a cross so that you might live in the truth of God and in the grace of God.

We can only understand how great and how sweet grace is because we know the truth of the  sourness of sin. And even as we believe and begin to align our life with the truth of God and his teachings in his word, and as we continually sin because you will, his grace abounds. There is no such sinner to far gone that cannot be saved because even though the truth is we do not deserve it, we could not earn it, God searches for you. The truth is God so loved the world that he gave, on that first Christmas Day, he gave his one and only son so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For he did not come into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

I remember when my son Atticus was born, we had Lilly first and it was an amazing experience, but he’s my first boy you know, and right before he was born I was listening to another pastor explain his thoughts when his son was born, and as I held Atticus in my arms the same thought came to my mind…”would I do it.” Would I look at this sweet baby boy and would I give him up for anyone…or everyone…no. I wouldn’t. But God was willing to make that sacrifice so that you might have eternal life through him.

When understand the truth that Jesus arrived to bring, and the great personal cost it took God to give us grace, I want to live the way Jesus commands because it is the truth and the truth is not negotiable. You know a lot of us believe that living in the truth of Jesus restricts us, but it doesn’t, it frees us from sin and allows us to live in the grace of God.

Jesus said this in John 8:31-32 “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” The truth is not a negotiation, hold on to it, don’t forsake it or give it up. This world and culture wants to minimize Jesus, we should be people who boldly live the truth and grace of Jesus to a culture who does not know him.

So where does this leave us today? Jesus arrived to be the prophet, the spokesperson of God and embody the truth of God. I want you to begin to fix your attention on the truth that Jesus is and begin living a life that reflects his truth.

But know this, The Truth of Jesus is not a negotiation, it is an invitation to Grace.

We don’t pick and choose which parts of Jesus' teaching and his word that we will follow, we don’t decide which parts will follow and which ones we won't. I want this part of Jesus but not that part, I know what God says here, but I just don’t believe that. It is not a negotiation. Because when you know the cost, you treat it differently. Because when you know the cost you will want to align yourself with the truth even if it goes against your sinful nature because you’ve experienced the grace of God.

My prayer is that this message is one of hope and encouragement, and it challenges you to begin to look in the areas of your life that you are negotiating with truth, and what areas of your life have you not accepted the invitation of grace to. Jesus arrived so that you might have life and life to the full, that only comes by living according to the truth ofJesus, and saved by his grace.

Pray