Why Christ?

Start Recording

As we enter into the advent season it’s a good time to remind ourselves what Christmas is all about.

In the hustle and bustle of making sure every present is bought, wrapped, and ready for Christmas day. We tend to lose our focus on the true reason for the season.

We have made Christmas such a big production that we blow right past Thanksgiving. Which is a great precursor to Christmas.

Thanksgiving should be a time where we show our thankfulness to all we have. A time where we show thankfulness to all in our lives.

And, I believe most importantly, a time where we show thankfulness for all God does in and through our lives. What better way to prepare our hearts for the upcoming Christmas season?

It’s getting harder and harder to be joyful in this season anymore.

The world wants to say happy holidays instead of Merry Christmas!!

And far too many people don’t even believe there’s a God. Some don’t even believe Jesus was a real person.

Isn’t Christianity just some “Religious Cult” that brainwashes their members?

If that’s true then what’s there to be thankful for?

If there’s no God, Jesus never existed, what purpose does this life serve?

If Christianity is just a bunch of mindless, brainwashed, cultists, then:

Why Jesus?

Because, there is a God, and Jesus does exist. Jesus is the Son of God, born of a virgin, died on a cross as propitiation for sin, defeated death and rose again, ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of God on the throne.

How do I know that?

Because I don’t just believe it happened. I have experienced a real transformational relationship with Jesus Christ.

Anyone who experiences that relationship and truly seeks that relationship finds themselves unwittingly and unintentionally transformed.

It’s a deep in the soul, who I am, character transformation. That relationship and transformation bring three wonderful benefits.

Joyfulness

Submission

Thanksgiving

We’re going to be in Psalm 100 today. Psalm 100 interestingly enough is the only Psalm that labels itself thanksgiving.

Yes there are many Psalms that are full of giving thanks and praise, this is the only Psalm that labels itself as such.

It’s only 5 verses long, but those 5 verses are very rich and theologically deep.

You should be there by now so lets look at verses 1-2 and see what they say about joy.

Joy

Psalm 100:1–2 ESV

1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!

We all have had moments in our lives of great joy. That first date with someone we desired a relationship with.

We walk away from that date on cloud nine. When we get out of sight we let those joyful emotions out.

We make gah, gah, gah, sounds and finally throw our arms in the air “WHOO!!!”

What in the world are those noises?

And WHOO isn’t even a word. We all recognize it and the dictionary defines it as “an expression” of great excitement.

After our body releases that bent up excitement, then we can actually say a word. Usually only one word for several minutes filled with fist pumps.

“Yes!! Yes!! Yess!!”

Those relationships build and change our character to some degree. The good times bring out moral character.

But, the bad times cause us to be reserved, build walls, and have trust issues. We guard ourselves against being hurt like that ever again.

A rare few are lucky enough to find the right person as high school sweethearts and stay together their whole lives. Even they have their ups and downs that cause hurt and guardedness.

Most have one or two or 30 or 40 relationships before they find the right person. When we find the right person our character changes even more.

Trust grows stronger and stronger. Even in the tough moments we know that person loves us and our love for them allows us to reconcile.

We find our character becomes substantially moral toward that person. We sacrifice ourselves for their happiness. We go out of our way to provide not just their needs, but their desires.

I remember meeting my wife and knowing this is the person I’m supposed to be with for the rest of my life. Just her love for me caused my character to change drastically in our relationship.

It’s wonderful, and joyful. But there are still times when it’s not very wonderful or joyful. We’ve had times of loneliness and grief that caused a lot of pain and hurt in our relationship.

Only our love for God and our love for each other brought us through those times.

Why Jesus?

Because He offers the one true, loving, never let you down, never hurt you, grace filled relationship.

He offers the one relationship that will transform your soul. Will cause you to unwittingly and unintentionally have a moral character.

One that extends to all people. Not just the one you’re in a relationship with.

I remember the first time I saw Jesus for who He truly was. There was no choice.

The choice I made was to seek Him. I made the choice to hear the gospel. And those guttural sounds and that WHOO!!!

It was a moment of joy like I’d never had before. And it didn’t go away. The more I sought Him the more that joy became less expressible.

A WHOO doesn’t do it anymore. But, I’m telling you I make a joyful sound. Whatever you might call it!!

And it’s for “All the earth!!” It’s available to anyone who seeks Jesus. We should have a desire to see all know Him.

We should gladly serve the Lord and be witness to this amazing transformational relationship. As we serve and get to know Him better we naturally submit to His authority.

Submission

We see that in verse 3.

Psalm 100:3 ESV

3 Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

We humans have a hard time with authority. To allow someone or some thing to have authority over us means we have to give up power.

I don’t know about you, but I kind of like to not just keep the power I have, but to become more powerful. The idea of submitting to someone and giving up that power causes fear and anxiety in my life.

We initially approach our relationship with God the same way. We like that grace and eternal salvation position we find ourselves in.

But we aren’t so keen on giving God any power and authority over us. We want to keep our free will and we want to make our own decisions.

Far too many Christians get hung up right here and settle for salvation is good enough. I’m saved and that’s all the relationship with God I need.

Then, they can’t figure out why their Christian life is a series of struggles with little or no growth. They refuse to submit to God’s authority and wonder why they don’t have His guidance in their lives.

It’s because they quit seeking Him. They quit wanting to know Him.

That would be like meeting someone, getting married, never spending time together, and wondering why the marriage is falling apart.

When we keep seeking Him and truly want to know Him it changes everything. My pride and hunger to protect and grow my power turns to a humble submission.

It’s not a conscious decision that I make. It’s not by my own will power that I humble myself before God.

It’s understanding who God is and who I am in relationship to God. God is my creator. I am His. I belong to Him.

Whether I believe in Him or not. Whether I submit to Him or not. I belong to Him.

Adam Clarke says in his commentary:

“It is your privilege and duty to be happy in your religious worship. The religion of the true God is intended to remove human misery, and to make mankind happy.

He whom the religion of Christ has not made happy does not understand that religion, or does not make a proper use of it.”

I would say that, yes Christianity is a religion, but it’s a religion that’s based on a relationship the Creator wants to have with His creation.

Submission to God doesn’t take power away from us. It gives us power. Power that comes from freedom and joy.

Power that comes from trusting God to work in our lives. The more we seek to know God, the more we naturally begin to submit.

We recognize that God, our Creator, has a perfect love for His creation and seeks a relationship with His creation.

It’s hard to wrap our mind around what that looks like.

What if you were able to create animate objects with the ability to love you. And your sole purpose for creating them was to have a relationship with them.

How far would you go to reconcile any relationship you could with your creation?

It’s your creation. It belongs to you. You poured your heart into that creation. How far would you go to reconcile with them?

How much would it hurt to be rejected by your creation?

I know what my initial reaction would be. I would be really angry.

I poured my heart out as I lovingly created you and you reject me?

In our pain, hurt and anger we might even want to destroy our creation. But deep down inside, we would still have a stronger desire to preserve and restore our creation.

There might be a story in the Old Testament like that. Maybe you’ve heard about it. It has something to do with a flood.

It’s a little controversial, but I think there might be some truth to it.

There might be a story about a Creator restoring His creation in the Bible. Maybe you’ve heard about that one too.

It’s another controversial story. A story about God’s Son sent to die on a cross to restore His creation.

A reconciliation of our broken relationship with God.

We have a creator God that loves us that much. That wants a relationship with us that much.

Why would we question our Creator’s motives to have a relationship with us?

Why would we want to exercise power and control over Him?

We are His creation. We belong to Him. He has every right to do whatever He sees fit with His creation. With us.

His love, mercy, and grace should cause us to naturally submit to His authority over us. It should draw us closer to Him in a loving relationship.

It is in submission to God the Father that we are filled with the Spirit. A Spirit filled Christian, seeking the Lord in His word, is full of praise and thanksgiving.

Thankfulness

Psalm 100:4–5 ESV

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! 5 For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

The Hebrew word translated “with thanksgiving” means offering confession and/or sacrifice.

This brings to mind what Paul says in Romans 12:1

Romans 12:1 ESV

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

We can only enter His gates by the grace and mercy of God. The only true reaction to that is completely surrendered, fully submissive, sacrificial worship.

“His courts” is a reminder that everything belongs to God. They are His courts. And when we enter them we are to do so “with praise.”

The Hebrew word translated “with praise,” in context means to sing words that glorify God.

The whole world belongs to God. All creation belong to God. God has given His creation a path to reconciliation.

It’s by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ that we are invited to enter His gates and enter His courts. What better reason to:

“Give thanks to him; bless His name.”

The Hebrew word translated “bless” means so much more than just our definition of bless. It would have impressed a specific vision upon the original audience.

It represents a person humbly falling to their knees in worship in a two-fold fashion. To worship God because of who He is and to worship God in thanks for future eternal life.

Psalm 100:5 ESV

5 For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

We can trust in God’s promises because He is good. The Hebrew word that is translated “good” here means the moral opposite of evil.

He is gloriously good and His perfect love endures forever. It doesn’t end, it doesn’t wear out, it never grows weary.

Why Christ?

Because a relationship with Christ is a transformational relationship.

It’s a relationship that brings joy even in the hardest of times.

Submission to our Creator who is morally good and loves us perfectly.

And gives us a future eternal life in His presence.

Now, I’m not going to stand up here and tell you life in Christ is rosy and perfect. That would be a lie.

But, there is a peace and comfort in Christ, even in the toughest times, that I can’t explain.

There’s a transformation that happens without any conscious effort. A transformation that changes moral character and integrity.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I used to be a person that didn’t like people. I didn’t even like myself. I could have been a hermit and been perfectly happy.

But, I’ve got to tell you. I have missed all of you terribly these last few weeks. My heart was breaking when I couldn’t be there for you.

This transformation didn’t happen because I consciously decided it needed to happen. It happened inside of me as I sought God and Christ in the word.

It happened inside of me without my knowledge or even recognition to be honest. The transformation happened and I didn’t recognise it myself for quite some time.

Because it was a natural transformation by the Holy Spirit. It’s the same transformation waiting anyone else who truly seeks Jesus Christ.

If you believe in Jesus Christ I would encourage you to seek Him in the word every day. If you don’t know Jesus Christ I would encourage you to seek Him in your heart.

The answer to why Jesus it this:

Life doesn’t become perfect and rosy. But it’s a life transforming relationship that brings joy, peace, and comfort.

It’s a life transforming relationship that brings an understanding of who we are and why we’re here.

It’s a relationship that will never let you down. It’s a relationship that lifts you up. It’s a relationship that will transform your life.

That’s Why Jesus?