What do you mean?

We all have those hilarious and sometimes frustrating moments when the words we use are misunderstood by others.

Illustration:

Throughout my life, I have had a ton of miscommunication

-When I tried to read the word ask

-Current Events: Humanitarian Problems

-Asking my ex to go out with me

often we can get lost trying to figure out the meaning of words

We try our best to speak clearly and understand the words others say, and yet we find ourselves frustrated, sometimes hurt, and other times our words become the punch line to a joke.

There are more serious words that we miscommunicate or that are miscommunicated to us.

Throughout my life I have been miscommunicated to about some serious things though too. As I came to know who Jesus is, I heard a lot of different messages and thought a lot of different thing about this guy that was supposedly so important. I struggled to see the importance of a man who lived so long ago and seemed so distant from my life. There were messages presented to me that made it difficult to want to follow after Jesus. He seemed irrelevant and unnecessary to my life because I was only seeing part of the picture. It was like looking through the slits of a fence as you walk past a house. You can make out the shapes and sometimes see dogs barking or people doing yard work, but you never get a full picture. That’s how I was seeing Jesus. Many of you are probably in the same spot as I was. It is frustrating and difficult because we just want a simple answer, a profile picture or a page with a bio. but a lot of the time we are given a bunch of words that mean just about nothing. And when people ask, “Who do you say that He is?” you feel stumped, speechless, searching for a response.

This truth of who Jesus is why we gather here tonight. But what does that really mean? Who is this Jesus guy? What does it mean to follow him? Why would I share Him with others? What will my response be when they ask?

A Definition of Jesus

English Standard Version Chapter 16

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Explain: Jesus takes those who are closest to Him out on a little trip to a place where they can get away and have intentional time together. After two years of traveling around with these fishermen, tax-collectors, and nobodies, Jesus questions them. Jesus wants to know, after they have lived with Him, seen Him heal people, and transform the lives of people who were without hope. Jesus wants to know, what are they thinking. He wants to hear it from their lips. Jesus wants to assess if they are getting the bigger picture. So He asks them a couple questions that are monumental.

Illustration: What do people think about Jesus?

Some people would agree that he was a great teacher and philosopher. Others would say that He was a mythological character of moral goodness. Some people say that he was a Neanderthal and a lunatic that was delusional about His identity as the Son of God. Some use His name as a cuss word almost like my mispronunciation of the letters a-s-k.

People who lived and saw Jesus in person said he was like one of the prophets. These were important figures from the Old Testament that represented God to people. He preformed signs and wonders like bringing people back from the dead and turning water into wine. But Jesus was much more than just a prophet.

Then Jesus makes it personal

Who do you say that I am?

Who do you say that Jesus is?

Illustration: If someone walked up to you and asked, “what do you think about Jesus?”

maybe that answer looks a little different for some of you in the room

maybe some of you don’t personally know Jesus and would have one of the responses that I mentioned earlier.

and I assume a lot of you would quickly reply the same way Peter did.

Peter speaks on behalf of the rest of the disciples and declares that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God

Jesus is so pleased with the disciples grown understanding of this earth shaking reality that before them is the Son of God.

However, Peter didn’t fully get it. the disciples didn’t really get the full picture.

Show a poster and through a frame demonstrate what it is like to only see part of the picture.

So what is it that the disciples are missing? What is it that we may be unintentionally missing from our picture of Jesus.

The Full Meaning of Jesus

English Standard Version Chapter 16

21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Explain: Here we see the full meaning of Jesus. Jesus begins to reveal the bigger picture of who he is. Jesus shows that He is going to give his life up as the Christ. Peter didn’t get what it meant to call Jesus the Christ. Peter had his mind set on his own interest and wanted to see a different plan than God had in mind. He didn’t understand what it meant when he claimed Jesus was the Christ. Being the Christ meant to endure the greatest pain so that the whole world might experience forgiveness and love from God. Jesus’ love is so deep for the whole world that the intent that Peter would try to stop him from saving the lives of billions of people is the work of Satan. Jesus has such a deep love and an authentically humble spirit that He would suffer and give his life up for all people, even knowing that He is the Son of God. Even knowing that as the Son of God he doesn’t need to do any of this, He still does. He left the throne in Heaven and came into the dark and hopeless world that we live in to serve all of us and die in our place so that we can be with Him in this life and the life to come if we chose to believe and follow Him.

It is good news that Jesus is the Suffering Servant. Yes, Jesus is the Son of God and is sitting in heaven on his throne as the king of Kings, but he also is the suffering servant who laid down his life for you.

Illustrate: Bigger Frame to get the whole poster. Now you can get the full picture and understand what is happening.

Application: Why is this so important? The way that we understand who Jesus is impacts directly who we think we are supposed to be. If we see that Jesus is a humble servant who gives his life up for ours, what does that mean for us who chose to respond to his love.

Well Jesus gives us the answer to what he wants us to do in response to this great love.

The Full Meaning of Jesus Followers

Explain: Jesus turns the attention about what it means for Him to be the messiah to what it means for us to be His followers. After correcting Peter for his attention on the things that he sees are important to what God sees as important, Jesus begins to explain how our whole lives need to be about the things of God rather than the things of man. He uses such strong language as to say that anyone who wants to come after Him and be His follower must deny themselves, take up their cross, and then they follow.

Deny, Deny Deny, and follow

what does it mean to deny yourself?

Well first what it doesn’t mean to not deny yourself and to instead indulge yourself?

We live in a world that sees Jesus’ instructions to deny oneself as dumb, counterproductive, and naive.

Our world is overflowing with the need to indulge ourselves. Every waking moment we are taught to think, “What is best for me?” I have caught myself in the mindset of always going, doing, and believing what would benefit me most. Have you? Did you walk in here tonight and think in a mindset of “What can I do to benefit others the most while I am here?” The truth is that most of us never spend more than a few minutes a day asking ourselves anything like that. I openly admit that I have struggled a lot with this. I am not saying this to make you feel guilty, but to recognize the common struggle we all have. Another way we indulge ourselves is with God. When we pray do we ask, “Lord, how can I live for you today?” I know that I find myself easily caught up in the questions that sound more like “What can I get out of this?”

As people pursuing to follow Jesus together, we have to figure out self-denial and what it means to lose our lives to find them.

Self-Denial and Finding your life looks like putting the interest of God and other first before our own. Jesus Himself is the greatest picture of Self-Denial for us to follow. Jesus is not the commercial image of success and self-gain that our world sells us. Jesus is a real image of love and selflessness that contrasts to the dark and toxic sales pitch of our world.Jesus gave up his seat in heaven and entered the world to save all who would believe in Him even though He knew that the people he came to save would kill Him. He offered up His own life to love God and love others. He follows the command to deny ourselves with the command to carry our cross, which is to follow the example of Jesus in laying our lives down for God and for others. To be a follower of Christ is to humbly accept that we are to do as Jesus desires which is to irrationally love our neighbors.

the way we deny ourselves to others is by loving and serving those around us and in our community by attending to their needs before our own.

This love and service can look like a simple prayer over your professor, or your boss, or your classmate who is struggle or maybe taking one of the homeless men and women outside these doors to dinner or lunch. This love and service can look like sharing the gospel with people who may reject us and hate us, doing it and denying the fear we have of rejection. This love and service can look like walking in rooms with the genuine intention to do whatever you can to help others before yourself.

What is the incentive? Why would we do this? Why would we live this kind of life?

This Loss of our own lives, ironically and counterintuitively saves our lives. When we lay aside our own interest and follow God’s interest, we find real life.

Jesus gives the motivation in his last sentence. Why lose our lives? Why deny ourselves and carry our crosses? Why do the counterproductive act of becoming like Jesus? Because Jesus will return with the angels and as the King who will set all things right. This walk that may be uncomfortable is done in the faith that Jesus’ death means life everlasting for us who believe. He will reward you for laying your life down for Him and He wants this for every single person in the room tonight.

As Jesus denied Himself, His Followers Deny themselves

Vision: As a Church, imagine what it would look like if we all denied ourselves and sought to live lives fully for God and other people.

what would that even look like? -what would that mean?

If New Light Community Church was a church full of devoted followers of Christ and deniers of self, the community of Manhattan would experience Jesus’ love in a new way. They would no longer see the church as a burden to society and useless in their town. People would find hope in the good news that they are loved and that there is a community of people that want to serve them and care about them. As a church we would would experience genuine community as we come together with a unified purpose and desire to serve Christ and to serve our community in humility and self-sacrifice.

Our nation, our town, and our colleges need to see the hope that we have in Jesus Christ and they can only see that when we live as Jesus did. That is the full picture of Jesus and His followers. Lovers and Losers on behalf of the world with the real hope of God’s plan to heal a broken world.

Challenge: I want to challenge all of us, me included, to deny ourselves and to love God and the community of Manhattan.

Prayer:

Father, We are so grateful that you sent your own Son as a sacrifice for our sins and as an example for us to follow. We pray that you would reveal to us what it is that you want us to do for you and for your people. We pray that your will and your way would be done in our lives to your praise and to bless the community of Manhattan. As we go, strengthen us and remind us that we are not alone. Remind us of the Hope that is in Jesus Christ who paid our debts with his blood. In Jesus Name. AMEN