Serving Jesus

This morning we are on our second sermon of the series Own the Vision. We are taking an in depth look at our mission statement at South Blendon.

Build Disciples, Grow In Faith, and Serve in Christ’s Name

Last week Pastor Gary talked about growing in faith, this week we are talking about Serving in Christs Name. The three parts of our mission statement are meant to work together. As you growth in your faith you begin to know Jesus more and out of this growth and knowledge of who Jesus is we serve him.

We serve in Christ’s name because we know who Jesus is and we have been blessed by him. Its out of his abundance that we serve.

When you sign up for something do you ever check out what it is your signing up for?

If you are going to serve on behalf of someone would you not want to learn about that person before you served on their behalf?

I don’t think anyone would sign up to serve in a spot or serve for an organization that we didn’t know at least something about it, what they stood for, what their belief structure was.

So, I don’t think its any different here in the church. I think that before anyone of us signed up to serve in Christ’s name we would want to know a little about who Christ is. We would be less effective if we just served from a guarded position and wasn’t giving it our 100% attention and energy.

So this morning I ask you this questions:

Who is Christ to you?

When you think about your life perhaps your a new Christian and new to this relationship, who do you say Christ is? Perhaps you have had a relationship that has traversed many miles with Christ, maybe you have seen him work in and through your life, who do you say is Christ? Perhaps your just here this morning to check things out and see what this talk is about. You have heard of Christ but your still not sure, I think you have an opinion of who Christ is as well. Think about that question and we will come back to it later and have a chance to say who Christ is to you.

We serve in Christ’s name because we know who Jesus is and have been blessed by Him. If you don’t know who Jesus is then lets explore that in a little detail this morning. Lets read through our passage this morning to get an understanding of who Jesus is. Lets also hear from a few first hand accounts to who Jesus was to them.

I’ve chosen John 1:1-18 for my text this morning but I want to take it in 3 chunks if you will allow. This passage for someone not familiar with the language can be somewhat confusing.

Prayer

Who is Jesus

The apostle John is writing this some 50 years after Jesus death, resurrection and ascension. In a time when people were questioning who Jesus was. He is writing this to an audience of new christians and even some searching non-christians. In the first 18 verses he lays out the whole gospel story, its a prologue to the rest of the book with gives detail accounts of the life of Jesus. We need to start here to understand who Jesus was.

Lets look at

John 1:1–5 NLT

1 In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He existed in the beginning with God. 3 God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. 4 The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

The Word

John here is introducing Jesus as the Word, the Greek translation for Word is Logos. He is building upon this Jewish thought that the Logos took on a human form. He is referencing back to Genesis where God spoke words into creation.

Genesis 1:2 “2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.”

Nothing has been created, the earth was formless and empty and covered in darkness with deep waters. John says that the Word already existed, that the Word was with God and that the Word was God. We read in verse 26 that God says let us make human beings. Who is the “us”, it is God and Jesus together in the beginning.

That God created everything through Jesus, and that nothing was created except through Jesus. That Jesus gave life to everything that was created, that through His life he gave light to everyone and that light shines in the darkness and can never be snuffed out. This also gives us a glimpse of whats to come when the darkness of this world goes up against the light of Jesus. We know the results of that as we just celebrated Jesus’ victory over sin and death, over the darkness of this world.

Paul says this about Jesus in his letter to the people in Colosse

Colossians 1:15–16 “15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, 16 for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see— such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.”

Lets keep reading our passage verses 6-13,

John 1:6–13 NLT

6 God sent a man, John the Baptist, 7 to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. 8 John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. 9 The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. 11 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. 12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.

The Light

Here we have almost like a quick little infomercial about John the Baptist, its sandwiched in the middle of this prologue. The apostle gives us a preview about whats to come later in Chapter 1 when John the Baptist tells us who he is, who he is not and what his mission is. He is very clear that he is tasked with preparing the way for Jesus ministry to take shape, he is tasked with telling everyone about Jesus. He is to be a witness, to testify about Jesus. He may be the first to testify but he wont be the last. In fact we are tasked with that same responsibility, to testify to others who Jesus is.

John continues to give us this high level summary of the whole bible really but certainly of Jesus’ life. He came into the world he created but the world did not recognize him, he came to his own people and they rejected him. THe good news though is that all who believed Him and accepted Him were given the right to become children of God.

John the Baptist talks about Jesus being the light of the world. Think about light and darkness for a moment. If your in a dark room and someone lights a candle the light penetrates the darkness right. Sin is that darkness and often times we are blinded by our sin. We are unable to see the light in the darkness. The other thing about that light is it shines on us and it illuminates us and our sin. Often times we don’t want our sins to be exposed and so we try and run from the light, we try to get out of the light where we feel more comfortable, where people around us can not see that sin in our life.

It takes both a deliberate action on our part to remain in the light and divine intervention from Christ for us to be reborn. Not a physical second birth but a birth that comes from God.

Lets finish our passage verses 14-18

John 1:14–18 NLT

14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. 15 John testified about him when he shouted to the crowds, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Someone is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.’ ” 16 From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.

Word Became Human

Verse 14 is maybe one of the most powerful verses in our passage this morning. That Jesus or the Word became flesh. Jesus who was in the beginning, remember “In the beginning the Word existed”, that same Jesus now became flesh and dwelt among us.

We could have a sermon series just on the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit but we will save that for another time. John is giving his readers this clear, undeniable proof that Jesus came in the flesh and lived among them. So many scholars and people from that time forward want to argue that either Jesus was not human or that Jesus was not God’s Son.

Not only did John see Jesus in the flesh he also saw His glory.

Matthew 17:1–2 “1 Six days later Jesus took Peter and the two brothers, James and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone. 2 As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed so that his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light.”

It is from Jesus’ abundance that we receive one gracious blessing after another. The Tony Evens says it this way

The Tony Evans Bible Commentary I. Prologue: The Word Became Flesh (1:1–18)

What does it mean to receive one gracious blessing after another(1:16)? John explains: The law was given through Moses. This was a good gift to Israel, revealing God’s righteous character and his will for their lives. The problem was that the law couldn’t enable people to keep it. It highlighted their sin but couldn’t transform their sinful hearts. But grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (1:17).

When we personally receive the substitutionary atoning death of Christ on the cross, our sins are forgiven and eternal life is imparted. That’s amazing grace! The gospel, then, does what the law couldn’t do. Through Jesus, we have access to the unmerited and unlimited favor of God. In eternity he will “display the immeasurable riches of his grace” to us without interruption (

Friends that is who Jesus is, that is who we try to serve here at South Blendon, but dont take my word for it. Lets first look at three people in scripture that met Jesus, who also were witnesses of Jesus.

Witnesses of Jesus

I think that if these three people were standing here today their testimony might sound something like this.

Woman at the well

Yeh, you know I was heading to the watering well to gather water for my family. Its something I do almost daily and so I wasn’t expecting to see this man sitting near the well. The sun was at high noon, it was hot and dry. I hardly ever see anyone at this time of day. I like it that way. The least amount of people I have to encounter the better off I am. But here sits this man with a weary look on his face. At first I wanted to just keep walking but for some unexplained reason I walked up to the well. Then he startled me by asking me for a drink. I mean whoa wait a second. I am a woman, a samaritan woman and this man is asking me for a drink. I said to him “you are a Jew and I am a samaritan woman, why are you asking me for a drink.

His response was out of this world, he was talking about if I only I knew the gift of God and who he was and that he could give me some type of living water. I was thinking the sun has gotten to him and he wasnt thinking clearly. I said you dont have anything to draw this water with besides how can you offer better water than this. What he said next just made me well up inside, he said that what he has, the water he has if I drink it, I will never thirst again. I was like ok, I want this water. Then things got a little weird because he said to me go get your husband to which I said I didnt have a husband and then he went on to tell my whole life story. Like he knew me or something. I have to say I was really ashamed in that moment but for some reason there was a calm that came over me. I had not lived a very good life and while he called me out on its account it wasnt like he was condeming me. I was like man you sound like a prophet or something, I said I know the Messiah is coming and when he comes he will explain everything to me.

Thats when he said those most amazing words to me “I am the Messiah”. I could not contain myself and I dropped everything there and ran back to the village to tell the others about this Jesus.

Nicodemus

I have never seen anyone like this before and certainly not seen or heard reports of Jesus doing this before but man something made him flip out. It was time to prepare the passover celebration and the temple was packed that day but Jesus came in and threw a huge temper tantrum and was screaming at everyone to get out and stop selling and buying. He said something like stop turning my fathers house into a marketplace. That was odd and so I knew I had to talk with him. I had to find out what it is he was talking about.

I didnt want to be seen by the others so after it was dark I went to speak with Jesus. I said Rabbi, we know God sent you to teach us. But he stopped me and said “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” I have not heard of this being born again so I asked him how that was possible, how can an old man like me go back into my mother’s womb and be born again? He told me that no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit, that Humans can produce only human life but the Holy Spirit gives birth to the spiritual life.

I tried to understand his teaching but have to say it was very confusing to me. It was confusing to me but I still felt compelled to help Joseph carry Jesus’ body from the cross to the tomb where we laid him.

Man on the Cross

Man I tell you what, I only knew Jesus for a few short minutes but they were the best minutes of my life. I sure wished I had known him for longer. I mean when I walked through the gates of heaven you should have seen the others. They were a little confused to see me there. I mean they kept asking me how I got there. I simply replied that Jesus invited me. They were like yeh, many people know Jesus but really how did you get here. I said look the man on the middle cross invited me. I mean there I was nailed to a tree just like Jesus and some other dude. That other guy was sure giving Jesus an ear full and I said thats enough, don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? I mean I had done some terrible things and I deserved to die but Jesus hadnt dont anything wrong and yet he was sentenced to die too. So I just thought maybe I could change my thinking a little and asked Jesus to remember me when he comes into his kingdom. His response was the most loving affectionate response ever, he said “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Three witnesses to Jesus, all had different encounters with him, all have different reactions perhaps to who Jesus was to them. The woman at the well would later testify to the interaction she had with Jesus and through her it says that many Samaritans believed in Jesus. We dont really know much about Nicodemus after his meeting with Jesus that night and his assistance with the burial. It would seem somewhat logical that perhaps he also believed in Jesus and would later go onto testify about him.

The man on the cross only knew Jesus on earth for a few short minutes, hind sight being 20/20 he probably wished things were different. When we are not following Christ, when we are not in relationship with him we miss out on so much. We miss out on the blessings that he has for us. We miss out on the chance to produce fruit and we run the risk of being cut off from Him. Last week Pastor Gary preached from this text,

John 15:8 “8 When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.”

I dont know that I can suggest we live a life like the man on the cross next to Jesus because if we do we are not able to bring glory to the father because we are not producing much fruit.

Who is Jesus to You

So this morning when I started I asked you “Who is Christ to You”. I wondered if perhaps this morning anyone would be willing to share briefly who Jesus is to them or what has Jesus done in your life? See we all learn from what we see and hear around us. For some of us perhaps hearing what our friends and neighbors say is what helps us.

Who is Christ to you?

Serving In Christs Name

So, you see the Christ that we serve is the son of God, He was here in the beginning, everything was created through him. Its Jesus who was crucified, died and was raised from the dead and now ascended to the the father, its Jesus who will come back again to complete the rescue mission. Its this Jesus that we serve.

Early in Jesus’ ministry when he had called his disciples he said

Matthew 9:37–38 “He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.””

Do you know him? Are you ready to serve him?

We serve in Christ’s name because we know who Jesus is, we have been blessed by Him and from his abundance of blessings we are able to serve him.

Amen