The Answer is Always Jesus

The other morning my daughter and I was talking on the way to school about when she is called on at school by the teacher to answer a question that she doesn’t know the answer to.

Don’t you hate it when you don’t know the answer to a question? I want to let you in on a secret this morning. In our Christian walk, when someone asks you a question about why you do the things you do, the answer is always Jesus. But this response only works if you know about Jesus. We have to know about Jesus in order to talk about him. And if I was going to tell you to learn just one thing about the Bible, that would be to learn about the life of Jesus.

This morning, I want to give you three things for you to keep in mind when considering how to answer people.

If you have your Bibles with you this morning, go with me to the book of Romans. I want to read from chapter 1, beginning at verse 1.

Romans 1:1–6 NIV

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5 Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. 6 And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

Paul begins his letter to the Romans by letting them know that he is called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.

The word “called” here in the Greek is kletos. It describes those who have been called and who respond to that calling.

But then look at what Paul says in verse 6. He says, “And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.” So, in essence all of us are called, but not all of us will accept the calling. If you are a believer, you are called by God to fulfill God’s calling.

Think about an artist’s palette for a moment. On that palette an artist, before he puts any paint on a canvas, he will put his paint on the palette first. He may put some green, blue, red, yellow, black, white and then he will use some of the other places on the palette to mix different shades to get different colors and then he will begin to paint his picture.

Now imagine God when he began creating you and what you would become for him. He begins in your mother’s womb deciding what he is going to do. There are some basic things that all of us have in common. But then there is this endless variety of all the other things that he does.

One thing I can tell you for sure is that everything on here is about love. If you have purpose for your life that is not loving God and loving people you did not get your purpose from God because the palette of purpose is always drawn from the well of God’s love.

If you are a business person and you say I really do believe that I am called to be a business person. God calls people to be business people, and to make money and to bless them and to finance the kingdom of God. You are never called to be a business person because of money. It is not about money, it is about the kingdom of God. It is about making Jesus famous and helping hurting people. God wants to use you.

If you are a business person the worst thing that you can possibly do is to let the purpose of your life be about dollar bills and you become this one dimensional, dime a dozen, kind of person that you are just living for money.

God never does that. What God does is he comes to the Palette and says I am going to make you and I am going to give you business skills and the ability to make money because I want you to love me and to love other people. And I want to use your money to make that possible; in my church, with missionaries and with all these people with mercy ministries that are trying to help people and show them my love. It is always about love.

You may say I am a scientist, what about me? If you are an intellectual, it is never about science, it is never about knowledge, it is how can you use your capacities to love God and love other people and to make human life better. It is never about knowledge, and if you made your life about knowledge, if you are smart and some people God just makes them smart, smarter than the rest of us, they are intellectual.

It is never about knowledge, it is never about athletics, it is never about art, it is never about those things. It is always about love.

God will not talk to you about money, he will not talk to you about degrees and knowledge and about attainment and awards and all those things. You will do amazing things because of the abilities that God has given you but it is not about those things.

It is always about God and people. And if it is not, you are living a meaningless life. And if you spend the next ten years of your life without focusing on loving God and people you will have wasted ten years of your life.

But that is what we are all about around here. We are about loving people and loving God and we want to help you to do the same. We want to help you to love people and love God and when you do that you will be the called ones that Paul is talking about here in our passage.

So, here are 3 things to think about when considering how to answer people.

1. Don’t “Preach the Gospel,” Tell Them About Jesus

A Pastor one time was giving a message during church and he asked the kids in the service to name the little creature that lives in the trees. He paused for a moment and there was no answer. He continued, “It’s grey and it eats nuts.” Again no answer. He said, “It has a long bushy tail and it jumps from branch to branch.” Still no answer. He said, “It chatters and flips its tail when its excited.” Still no response, then finally a boy raised his hand. The pastor was relieved and he called on the boy. The boy said, “Well, it sure sounds like a squirrel, but I know the answer must be Jesus!”

And yes church, the answer is always Jesus.

If you look through Paul’s letters and even the times that Paul is speaking to the people in the book of Acts you will see that every time Paul explains his use of the term gospel he does so by recounting the life of Jesus.

In our text today, Paul does this. In Acts, you can read a lengthy evangelistic sermon where Paul focuses on the life events of Jesus. Even in a shortened version in 2 Timothy 2:8

2 Timothy 2:8 NIV

8 Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel,

According to Paul the gospel isn’t the 4 Spiritual Laws or the Bridge to Life illustration. It is all about Jesus.

He was born of a virgin, conceived by the Holy Spirit. He lives a perfect life, absolutely without sin. While on earth He worked many miracles through the anointing of the Holy Spirit. In order to restore fallen humankind, He died on the cross as a substitute for the sins of every person. He was raised from the dead by the supernatural power of God. And since His resurrection He has been exalted and is seated at the right hand of God.

And so you can see that when I say “don’t preach the Gospel just tell them about Jesus,” telling people about Jesus is telling them the gospel.

We should become so familiar with the stories of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, that they roll off the tongue when people ask us why we host dinner parties for the poor. Or why we bless so many people every week. Or why we volunteer for various organizations. Or why we spent our vacation on disaster relief projects.

We should know the Gospel message so well so that anytime we need it we can tell any part of the story we need to tell.

2. Don’t Focus on Their Sin, Focus on Jesus’ Kingship

Did you notice in our text that Paul didn’t start off telling the Romans that they were sinners. He didn’t begin this book by listing their sins and how bad those sins were. He began by telling them who Jesus was. He began by telling them why He came to this earth.

In verse 3 of our text, he lets the people know that Jesus was a descendant of King David. Jesus was part of David’s kingly rule.

When people ask you why you live as you do, your goal should be to let them know that it’s because of the example and teaching of King Jesus.

David Bosch writes, “The mission of God’s people is to alert others to the universal reign of God.”

If we believe Jesus reigns as King, and if we believe His Kingdom is a realm of reconciliation, justice, beauty and wholeness, we should not only demonstrate these things. We should also speak about them.

We get too wrapped up in the sin that we forget the person. If you will tell people about Jesus and lead people to Jesus and You share Jesus well, then it will lead people to question their own lives.

Look at how Paul ends his sermon in Acts 13. He says,

Acts 13:38–39 NIV

38 “Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. 39 Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.

He ends the sermon by addressing people’s sin. But he begins that sermon with Jesus. From verse 16 to verse 37, Paul talks about Jesus, he talks about the historical events of Jesus’ messianic rule, life, death, and resurrection. And then, at the end, he ends with the doctrine of justification by faith.

3. Don’t Focus on Church, Focus on Purpose

Let me begin by saying, “I Love My Church.” Are we perfect? No. But this is a great church with great people. However, this church is not why I do the things I do. The reason I do the things I do is all because of Jesus.

Is this church a place where people can find Jesus? You bet. But they can also find him in the super market. They can find him in the front yard of your house. They can find him at a family gathering. They can find him when they are all alone at home.

Our job is not to lead people to the church house but to lead them to Jesus.

When someone asks you why you do what you do, you tell them it is all because of Jesus. And you can invite them to the church, to help them to continue their journey following Jesus.

Everything that we do should point people to Jesus. The way we walk, the way we talk, the way we work, everything. Our life should be an example to the world. People should want to be like us because they see something different in us. That is Jesus living inside us.

I want to close this morning by telling you a story from Michael Frost’s book Surprise the World. He tells the story of meeting a group of hard-core surfing enthusiasts and asking them who their favourite surfer of all time was. They said it was the Florida surfer, Kelly Slater, who has been crowned the world surfing champion a record 11 times, including 5 consecutive times from 1994-98. He is the youngest, at age 20 and the oldest, at age 39 to win the title.

When Michael asked them to tell him more about Kelly Slater they went bananas, overwhelming him with facts about Slater’s life—where he grew up, what boards he uses, which years he won the title, what movies and television shows he’s appeared in, which models and movie stars he’s dated, and on and on.

With this in mind, let me stop and ask you a question. What if I or a neighbor or a friend or a family member were to ask you, “Tell me, what do you know about Jesus?” What would you say?

Frost concluded this story by saying:

“When we live questionable lives people should see our strange behavior and ask us about our motivations and then we should be able to speak about Jesus the way surfers would speak about Kelly Slater, with energy and enthusiasm, with reverence and awe, with delight and wonder”

How well do you know your Savior King Jesus? If you don’t know Him well, then it is time that you get to know Him. If you don’t know Jesus at all. Then, make Him your Savior today.