Who is Jesus?

Main Point: Jesus is More

ME/WE/GOD:

Whats up everybody! My name is Max so excited to be here with y’all. I work for called to greatness and have been for the past five years I graduated from KU in 2017 with a degree in architecture which was a lot of fun sorta! Tonight we are going to talk about Who is Jesus? So Before we jump in I want to ask something of you guys. I want you all to do something for me. I would like for you all to try your darnedest to put aside any idea of who you believe Jesus is for me okay? Any preconceived notions, any opinions, biases, beliefs or whatever have you, just set them aside for the next twenty or so minutes. I know its not entirely possible but try for me will ya? Think you can do that? Well sweet! We are going to jump in then.

Tonight we are going to do a little thought experiment okay? So what’s going to happen is I’m going to have everyone close their eyes and we’ll just do a little visualization and I’ll help us through that yeah? Okay so everyone, and I mean everyone go ahead and close your eyes for me. And again I do mean everyone, close your eyes! Sweet thanks. Now don’t open them till I tell you to okay. PAUSE.

Now I want you to picture yourself in a chair, locked in a prison cell, or a cave or something like that. You have been taken captive. Now don’t freak out, we’re all safe in the Burge at the union but I’m going to paint this picture a little fuller. You have been gagged, blind folded, your hands are tied. And honestly you can’t quite remember how long you have been here. You were taken captive in part of a war but honestly it has been so long you can’t remember not being a captive. You smell the mustiness, the dampness. It’s a little stuffy but also a little damp. Your captors will come and feed you occasionally but other than that they don’t talk to you much. PAUSE.

Now, one day as you are sitting in the dank, dark smelly cave or prison you start to hear a noise off in the distance. Some pop pop of gun shots. And you start to feel your heart rate rise, both in nervousness and in excitement. You think, man what’s going on out there, could they be here for me? Sitting there alone you think about your cave or wherever you are. How long you had been there. Slowly but surely the noise draws closer. The gun shots get louder as they creep towards you, all the while your heart rate increases in nervous excitement. Something though in the back of your head whispers that this cave is safe, you know you will have food and water, and you don’t have to be responsible for anything. At once though the noise is right outside the door that guards your prison and *CLAP* the door is busted down. Brightness seeps through the edges of your blindfold so much so that you have to close your eyes even in your blinded state. Then silence. After a moment you hear the soft measured steps of someone who walks in and kneels beside you. Your heart again beating quite quickly. He slowly, gently takes the blindfold off and once more the light from the door blinds you. As your eyes adjust he takes off your gag, and gently still takes off the bonds on your wrists. Finally as your eyes adjust to the light he looks up at you and you see a bullet ridden, bruised and nearly broken man kneeling before you. He stands and holds his hand out and says “Come follow me”. In that moment you realize you have two choices stay in the cave “safe” from the outside world, or go with him. You don’t even hesitate to choose him. You take his hand and struggle to your feet, having barely walked the past however long you’ve been captive. As you step outside the light again blinds you but not as bad. You make your way out of the camp with staggered steps. He brings you back to his Kingdom where he offers you food, water, and shelter. And another choice. To help him, this still bullet-ridden, bruised and nearly broken man, to go and rescue others just like he did for you.

WE/GOD

Go ahead and open your eyes. Man this is the picture I have when I think of Jesus now. Someone who came and rescued me in the darkness, in the weariness, in my own brokeness. For me though this wasn’t the picture I had growing up, I had a far away God who simply wanted me to pray a prayer. And maybe thats you, maybe you’ve never heard of Jesus, maybe you’ve heard Jesus is this vindictive, or demanding God, maybe you have some other picture in your mind.

What I’m here to tell you tonight though that even my hopefully descriptive picture of who Jesus is, isn’t the whole picture. Jesus is More. He is more than we can ever hope to grasp, he is more than we can ever hope to conceive of, but even through all of that, He is so good you all. He rescues us. He saves us in the darkest of days and worst of nights. He comes and says “Follow me”.

YOU:

Now hopefully you followed along in that little visualization and can see the depth at which he went to go to rescue us. But there’s still MORE. Everyone say more with me. MORE. Jesus, this bullet-ridden, bruised King wants you to go and do what he did for you. And realize this won’t always be easy, we will have some pains along the way, like the blindness that first entered our eyes, or the weariness that took your legs as you started to walk. But He wants you on the mission with him. Jesus wants you to partner with what he is doing in rescuing others from their own dark caves. Maybe however, thats not you maybe you are still needing to be rescued. And maybe you don’t see your life as a dark cave, but I would like to submit that you have been blinded if Jesus has not rescued you, in that blindness you can make up whatever reality you want but in truth you are sitting in a dark, musty cave. Yet Jesus has come to rescue us all. And I have gospel for you all, good news for you all this evening. This is something he has already done. He has already chosen to come and rescue us. All you have to do is take his hand and follow him. And if you have already done that, then man you either need to eat some food, or get to work.

WE:

And here’s what happens. We change the world. Man so many people need rescuing from either a fake reality that they have created for themselves, a dark cave that they have been stuck in for far to long or to be activated to go and rescue others. Jesus is More, and we can be so much more along side him. More than we even think we have the capacity to be. See, sitting in that cave we can think man this is all I’ll ever amount to, or I’m limited by my circumstances, or there isn’t enough. But Jesus comes and says nah nah nah, I got you, come. Follow me.

So tonight we are going to dive in a little bit. Last week we had some wonderfully larger groups to discuss in and that was fantastic, tonight however we are going to break up into groups of no more than 3 okay? So get with someone who brought you here or someone you met here recently and dive into these questions. We’ll take the next 10 minutes to discuss these with each other then come back!

Questions:

How have you seen Jesus in the past?

How do you see Jesus now?

Have you taken Jesus’ hand and followed him? If yes, what are you going to do now about it? If no, is that something you want to do?