Binge Jesus Part II: Week 1

Well, good morning, Thank you guys for being here today.

And you know, this is the day that I'm usually

most appreciated all throughout the year as your pastor because

we have the latest services in our whole state nine

forty five, eleven fifteen, and today's day that really matters,

and so you're welcome. But anyways, so glad that you're

here today as we kick off our new series, and

I'm so excited about what Christ is going to do

in our lives over the next few weeks. And so

let's go ahead and dig in and let's look at

the life of Jesus. God. We just love you so much.

We thank you for your grace, for your mercy and Father,

we just thank you for all that you're doing here

and God, today we want to shape our life. We

want to shape the way we see Jesus so that

we can see him more clearly. We pray all this

in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. When was the

last time that you got really dressed up? And I'm

talking like formal dressed up, like black tie for the

men or even a tuxedo, you know what I'm talking about.

And you can tell when it's a really nice event

for men because men go the extra mile. For instance,

we will clip our hairs that grow out of our ears,

our nose, and then if it's a really nice event,

we will trim up these eyebrow hairs and make sure

all the soldiers match. And so, you know, when you

get dressed up, it's a big deal for ladies. When

was the last time you wore a formal dress? You

know what I'm talking about? Where you have to go

and you go to the salon, you get your manicure,

you get your hair all done up, and you get

ready for open toe shoes. So you might get a pedicure.

But even if you aren't gonna wear open toe shoes,

you still get a pedicure because why not. You're there,

and when was the last time you got really dressed up?

It makes it a special occasion. Several years ago, I

was invited to a black tie event. It was the

opening of a business and I happened to be friends

with a journalist and this journalist got me into this

big opening swinkie event. And it was a beautiful building

downtown and I mean it was crazy. Everybody was dressed up,

the waiters had white gloves, there was speeches. There was

toasts that were toasted as the people got very toasted,

you know what I'm talking about. And so it was

at the party for quite a while, joying myself. And

then I went over to get a refill on my

club soda and I go up and I sit down

at the bar, and this guy next to me decided

that he needed to have guy talk. Do you know

what guy talk is? It's where guys just say whatever

comes to their mind. And for him, there was nothing,

nothing that was good that came to his mind. And

he was saying this, and he was saying that, and

he had no governor on his speech, and so he

said whatever came to his mind. Matter of fact, if

I were to quote just even one quote from him,

I would no longer be employed at church at the Crossing.

I mean, after thirty one liners that would make Howard

Stern blush. He asked me my least favorite question, but

on this night, I could not wait for this question

to be asked. And so he says, so what do

you do for a living? And I'm like, oh, And

I just put my hand on his shoulder and I

was like, You're gonna love this. I'm a pastor. Now,

I did not expect his reaction because usually I get this, Oh,

I'm sorry, father for those cuss words I said, and

you know, I really do respect women and blah blah

blah blah, bah blah blah blah blah, and I get that.

But instead this guy began to weep and he began

to cry right there, and I was very embarrassing for

both of us. And he's crying. He goes on to

tell me that, you know, a boy, his life the

answer to my question that he asked me traumatized him.

And he began to tell me about his unfaithfulness to

his wife. He began to tell me about the shady

business deals that he was involved with. He talked about

how he even at work, he had a very prominent

job and he made a ton of money and had

a very high position. And he says, sometimes I, you know,

will bring cocaine into the office just to keep the

day going. And then he began to weep even deeper

as he talked about his little daughter, and he talked

about how this girl means everything to me. And he

looked at me and he says, I know that the

way I'm living is going to catch up with me,

and it's going to ruin her life, and I don't

know what to do about it. You know. Again, the

answering of that one question changed everything. It made a

complete one in our conversation. His behavior, his attitude, his

speech changed Why because of a simple answer to a

question that was posed in the middle of our conversation. Now,

today we're going to be looking at a very crucial

question that has potential to alter the way someone lives

their life. And this is a question, by the way,

that every human must answer before you leave this earth,

and the right answer makes all the difference for some.

The way you answer this question, it will light up

a fire in your life that will not be blown

out for the rest of your life. It's a question

that has the ability to alter the way we live,

in the way we respond to this world. So let's

look at this question here today as we jump into

Luke chapter nine, and it is Jesus here of his disciples.

He's been ministering all over the place, and then he

asked them this very important question. It says it it

happened that while he was praying alone, the disciples were

with him, and he questioned them saying, who do the

people say that I am? Now? Have you ever noticed

that where we are at raises the significance of a conversation.

Do you ever notice that that conversations are different according

to the space that we are in. For instance, the

way you answer a question on a job interview is

much different than the way you talk to your buddies

at dinner. Right, And the way that, for instance, the

way you answer a question to your spouse is different

than the way you would answer a question in the

court of law. Okay, And careless words said beside a

casket have so much more meaning and implications than careless

words said at a cafe. So we have to understand

that this conversation that Jesus is having, the conversation goes

to another level because of the place that they're having

this conversation. It raises the significance of this question. And

here's what we see here that Matthew in his Bible

and his Gospel, he records that they were in a

place called Cesarea Philipie. Let me tell you a little

bit about Cerea Philippie. Cesarea Philippi was named originally Philippi,

but then Augusta Caesar decided to honor himself, so he

called it Caesar's philip Pie. So that's where we get

Cesarea Philippi. Now, so this place becomes kind of a

crown jewel of the Roman Empire, which by the way,

during the time rules from India to England. So you know,

the Caesar, he's the king of the world, king of

the world. Matter of fact, King Herod was a sycophant,

and so he, you know, built a huge temple there

just to honor this Caesar. And it's almost at the

crossroads of the world that Jesus asked the question, who

do people say that I am? Because to the south

of Jesus's Jerusalem Israel, and this is where God's people,

God's prophet, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the religion of Judaism,

everything about what we know about God up to this

point comes from this region. So to the south of

him it is God's country. But to the north of him,

there he is standing in the shadow of the mind

of the great King Augustus Caesar Cesare philip Hi and

so it's in the middle. It's in the middle of

the world being ruled by a king and the religion

that has led up to this moment in the South,

and Jesus asked this question, who do people say that

I am? And remember, now this is coming after a

season where Jesus has went from village to village, countryside

to countryside, He's been doing miracles, he's been preaching, and

so he's expecting some sort of answer. So let's look

at the answer. Here's what the people were saying, who

Jesus was? They said, well, some say you're John the Baptist.

In other words, they are saying, you know, John the

Baptist was killed, but some people are saying that you're

the resurrected John the Baptist. Others say you're Elijah, but

others that you're just one of the prophets of old

that has risen again. Now I'm inclined to think that

this answer broke jesus heart. Here he is, he's been

going around helling people, beating people, performing miracles. And here's

what they actually said. Let me translate that you're not

the one. You're maybe the one before the one, but

you're not the one. You're not the Messiah, you're not

the King of Kings, you're not the Lord of Lord.

You're not God's son, but maybe you're the one before

the one who is to come. And so a lot

of people said, we know, we really think he's Elijah.

And you gotta understand that Elijah's role was simply this.

The Bible said that Elijah would come back and that

he would get all of God's people ready for battle.

And so they're thinking that maybe Jesus is this one

who's gonna come back, get all of God's people ready

for a battle so we can overtake Rome and take

our rightful place. And so they thought maybe Jesus was

this warrior prophet who had been resurrected to come back

get them ready for battle. You know, still to this day,

if you go to a Jewish passover, you'll see a

glass of wine and that glass of wine is set

aside for the prophet Elijah. And the reason it's there

is because they're still waiting on the prophet Elijah. What

does that mean. If they're still waiting on the prophet Elijah,

that means that the Messiah still has not come. And

so they're saying, Jesus, you know what they're saying, that

you're not the one, but you know you're maybe the

one before the one. You're not the real one, You're

not the chosen one. So if the broken heart, Jesus

leans in on this next question, maybe the most important

question asked in this Bible, and he said to them,

but who do you say that I am? Now? Remember, okay,

let's just be a little bit more graceful here. We

could think about all these people that you he just had,

Minister two. We could give them a little bit of grace, right,

because maybe the only spend an afternoon with Jesus. But

now he's asking the guys that have been with him

every single day. They know him more than anybody else

knows him on this earth. They've seen all his miracles,

they've heard all his conversations. They've seen him behind the scenes,

they've seen him on the stage, You've seen him everywhere.

If anybody knows who Jesus is, it's this group of people.

And so their answer carries so much more weight. And

so Peter, who we can always count on, jumps in

with his life changing declaration. Let's go ahead now, and

let's watch a clip from The Chosen that kind of

gives us a picture of what this moment might have

looked like we have in this moment, this first confession.

What does Peter say? Peter says to him, and want

you to pay attention. As Peter says, you you are

the Christ of God. You are the Christ of God. Now,

by the way, this answer is a game changer because

it calls Peter and his followers into a deeper relationship.

And this confession changes things in a profound way. Now,

what's the big deal. What's the big deal with him

calling him the Christ of God. Well, here's what I

want you to understand. When we go to the Old Testament.

The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and then it

was translated into Greek. And this word that was translated

to Greek that Peter called him was Christos. He said,

you are the Christos. And when we go back into

the Old Testament, the word Christos was used to describe

twenty different kings, and he is saying that you are

the anointed King, you are the Christos of God. And

so Peter says to him, you know, I don't think

that you're the one before the one. I don't think

you're John the Baptist. I don't think that you're a

prophet that I don't think that you are elij To. No, No,

I'm convinced that you are Christos. You are the King.

You are the King of kings, the Lord of lords.

You are the Alpha, you are the Omega. You are

the Beginning, and you are the end. You are my God.

You are the creator of the universe. You are wonderful.

You are Counselor. You're the Prince of Peace. You are

the mighty God. You are the King of this universe.

And your kingdom starts and it will reign forever because

you are not the one before the one. You are

the one. You are Christos. And here's my question today,

who do you say he is? Is he your king?

Because king means something much different, doesn't it. You know,

he's calling Jesus king. In the shadow of the crown

jewel of the Roman Empire again, Rome rules from India

to England. And let me tell you something about Rome.

During that time. They were brutal, they were violent. They

are a ruthless regime. And in the shadow of all

of their might, he says, you are the king. And

that's a pretty good start for Peter. He captures part

of who Jesus is. He recognizes that there's something unique

and special about Jesus, and he recognizes that Jesus is

first and foremost Christ the King. Now why is it

crucial for Peter to begin here? What difference does it

make that he recognizes Jesus first and foremost Christ the King.

And this leads us to our bottom line statement today.

Here it is who we say he is determines to

say he has in our lives. Who we say he

is determines to say he has in our lives, our character,

our actions, our behavior, our responses, our attitudes, all of

these things of who we are. It all evolves out

of who we believe Jesus really is. By the way,

everybody on us earth has an opinion about who Jesus is.

The Muslims they believe in Jesus. Matter of fact, in

the Koran they call him Isa. They believe that he's

a great prophet, maybe one of the greatest prophets that

God ever sent. And Jesus was a prophet sent from

God to mankind. But he's just one of the prophets.

The Jews or Judaism, the religion today they say that

Jesus is a false messiah who led many away from

the Jewish religion, atheists and agnostics. Most of them will say,

you know what, he's a good teacher. He's someone that

you know, you can immolate your life from. Most of

them believers today, they're not hostile towards Christ. In fact,

they're very much indifferent towards him. He's kind of like

a great old historical figure that you should appreciate, kind

of like George Washington. You know, he's a great guy,

he was a great leader. But yeah, it doesn't really

affect my life day in and day out. Great guy,

but not my savior, not my king. And then there

are some Christians today, I would say, many Christians who

see Jesus as the great add on to their life. Oh,

they love having a savior, They love having someone who

took their punishment for them. They love having this option

to be saved. But a king who wants a king? Now,

since many of us in this room, or maybe all

of us, consider ourselves Christians, so I think it's important

when we're considering Peter's confession as Jesus as King, we

need to dispel our debunk some other titles that have

been given to Jesus over the years. Now, I want

you to hear my heart on this. I want to

deconstruct this some of these false ideas and images of

who Jesus is so that we could truly grasp the

true essence of who Christ is. Now, what's interesting is

when Jesus was here on earth, they had a wrong

idea of who Jesus was too. They thought he was this,

even though he was that. Matter of fact, this next

clip shows part of that conversation, that misunderstanding of who

Jesus was. Let's check out this next clip of who

Jesus was and still today, there's many false ideas of

who Jesus is. And so I want to want to

do for a few moments is I want to look

at some false images of Jesus that are very common

in our culture today. First one I want to look

at is genie Jesus. And this is the Jesus that

almost acts like a genie in the bottle for us

to him when we need something. And then Jesus becomes

almost like our errand boy, Jesus, I need this. So

I'm gonna get close to you until I get this.

Then I'm going to go back to my life. But

the next time my life is in trouble again. I'm

going to come back to you because I have some

more errands for you. Several years ago, the old church

that I was at IM it's a Saturday night's service,

and I saw one of my youth that I had

not seen since she went off to college, and I

was so excited to see her and catch up and

all my heart was just elated. The next morning, she

came to the first of our three services and I go, wow,

you're back, and she said yeah, and she said, you

know what, I'm going to go to all the services today.

And I'm thinking, oh my gosh, she has revival has

happened in her heart. And then she went on to

tell me that she had put in an offer on

a house and that she was going to be at

each service and she was going to go to church

for each and every service as long as it took

for her to get the house that she wants. Apparently

she got that house that day, because we never saw

her again. Some people see Jesus as an errand boy.

They only go to him when they need something, they're

in trouble or whatever. And then there's those of us

who maybe grew up in a church who see this

next image of Jesus critical Jesus. This is the Jesus

that I grew up with. A lot of us who

grew up in holiness movements, are maybe in some of

the religions that are heavy on guilt. You understand this.

This is the Jesus that's just waiting for you to

break a commandment so you could be condemned. And this

Jesus only cares about rules, not a relationship, and grace

is something that almost has to be earned by good behavior.

And I remember I feared this Jesus growing up. He

was almost like described as this yo yo Jesus. In

other words, when I'm doing really good and I'm behaving

really well, I'm in his hands. But when I mess

up and I in, I'm out, and I'm in and out,

in and out of relationships. I can't tell you how

many times up until eighth grade, when I finally just

decided I didn't want nothing to do with Jesus. Then

I went down to the altar and after I messed

up and said, resaved me why I wanted a relationship

with Jesus. But I wasn't good enough for Jesus. Jesus

was always disappointed on me because I couldn't be perfect.

And by the way, this Jesus has no power to

truly save guess who this Jesus is. Salvation relies on

me and my good behavior. A lot of us have

grown up with this Jesus, and this critical Jesus is

no good for us. He's not Jesus that we see

from the Bible. Then the next one is Buddy Jesus. Okay,

Now let me talk to you about Buddy Jesus, because

Buddy Jesus is the main Jesus of our culture today.

He's the number one Jesus. Okay, He's like the all

star Jesus. Okay. And Buddy Jesus sees the most popular

and he's the exact opposite of critical Jesus. Because this

Jesus just loves you no matter what you do. And

this Jesus shapes into whatever mold you need him to

shape into to meet up with your theology, your philosophies,

or your lifestyle that you want to live, and you're

never inconvenienced by conviction. This is what Jesus that says,

you know what, everybody, All that matters is love, live,

your truth, live how you want, live whatever lifestyle you want.

He just wants to have a lobtain with you and

be your buddy. He saves you, he rescues you, but

he requires no adjustments in your life. And this Jesus

is super hard at work right now so that you

can have your best life now. This Jesus stands for

everything that you stand for and is against everything you're against.

And I got this little quote for you here, and

this this Jesus really kind of encapsulates his thoughts. Many

believe that today's Jesus lets you wear the crown of

his kingdom while he wears the crown of thorns. He's

the only one that suffers. He's the only one who

has to deal with things. See everybody by the way,

by the way by everybody loves it's Jesus. He doesn't exist,

but everybody loves him. Lastly, there's miserable Jesus. And miserable

Jesus can almost be perfectly summed up by a story

from one of our staffers that told me years ago.

They said that for years they grew up. They grew

up in a church. Hey, do you know how you

have missionaries come in and then the missionaries talk about

how like, for years and years and years they have

a very similar story, and it's a true story, but

for years and years and years they're like, hey, I

didn't want to give my life, but finally when I

finally surrendered my life to God, he says, now you

shall move to Africa. And this pastor from our staff said,

I don't like Africa. It has snakes, it's hot, it's scary,

and he started naming all these other countries, but he

never heard them talk about because obviously Africa was the

only one to hear talking about growing up. And he

kept thinking, you know, if I really give my life

to Jesus, he's gonna make me go live the rest

of my life in Africa miserable Jesus. And you know,

from now, for some people it's the most awesome thing

on a surf, but for this pastor, he just assumed

that if I follow Jesus, then whatever I really don't

and what I don't like on this surf, that's exactly

what Jesus is gonna make me do. And so it's

almost like if I come into a relationship with Jesus,

I'm gonna become miserable. And that's a conception that most

people have. Go talk to a college student who's having fun,

why don't you follow Jesus. I don't want to become miserable,

and so they just believe that being with Jesus calls

for a miserable life. Now, that's a funny way for

me to kind of share this, but that's the way

this person thought when they were twelve. Are thirteen years old?

You know, I don't want to be miserable. So here's

what I want to do for the rest of the time.

We just have a few minutes left. I want to

transition in thought, and here's what I want to want

to do. We've looked at the modern day false Jesus

and we can't help but notice that Jesus has either

made it to someone that we want him to be,

or he's made it to someone that no one wants

to be in a relationship with because of his judgmental

nature and how he can make our lives miserable. Now,

how do we get to this in society? How do

we come up with this false Jesus? I think the

answer is very simple. It came from hearsay. See false

images of Jesus come from the words of humans instead

of the words of God written as scriptures. They come

from humans. And so here's what we want to do.

If we want to get a correct image of who

Jesus is, then we actually just need to look at

scripture and look at who Jesus says he is. Let's

just go ahead and go strength to the author. Let's

go straight to the source and see the first thing

that Jesus asks him, He goes, who do you say

that I am? And then Peter proclaimed, you are Christ

the King. Now here's what we notice. Jesus doesn't deny that.

What does it say here? But he warned them and

instructed them not to tell this to anyone. He said,

you're the king. And yes, Jesus accepts that title, that

he is the king. But here's the thing he says,

don't tell anyone. Now. Why did he want them to

tell anyone? Why because the portrait that they had of

a king was not the type of king that Jesus

what's going to be. He wants to reshape the image

of a king. You see, Jesus is a new type

of king that no one had ever seen before. He's

a messiah, king. And so what did Jesus say, says

the son of Man. Here's what you need to understand.

What type of king I am? The son of Man

must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders

and the chief priests and ascribes. And I'll be killed

and I'll be raised up on the third day. And

so he broadly proclaims. And only is he Christ the king,

but he's the Messiah king. And here's the thing. He says,

you can trust me, you can surrender your life to me,

because I'm a good king. I'm a king that serves

the people. See Jesus flips monarchy on its head. He's

the king that serves people before he asks them to

serve him. So how does Jesus describe himself in his passage?

What does original source say about himself? He's the king

who suffers. He says, the son of Man must suffer

many things and be rejected, and that's exactly what we

see happen. Secondly, he's not only the king who suffers,

but he's the king who saves. And it says that

he will be killed and raised up on the third day. See,

our king saves us because he chose not to save himself.

Do you hear that? I'm gonna repeat that again. That

is such a good line. Ready, Our king saves us?

Why because he chose not to save himself. That's why

he's the king that we are allegiance to. Took our punishment,

He took our place. He's a king who says, and

Jesus makes it clear by his words that he's a

different type of king. He's God's king, the one who's

truly worthy of worship, our trust, our devotion, our allegiance.

And so how do we respond to this king? Well,

it's very simple. Who we say is determines to say

he has in our lives. Friends, which Jesus have you

been following? Have you been following the Jesus that makes

your life easier? Have you been following the Jesus the

society proclaims, are you following the Jesus that we see

from scripture who says that he is the king who suffers?

He is the king who saves. And by the way,

who you say he is absolutely determines the he has

in your life. There was a missionary who was living

in the Amazon, and he got pretty hot there, and

so he said to some of the tribesmen, he said,

you know, I would love to swim in this river here,

but I'm scared to death of the piranhas. And he said, oh,

don't worry, there's no piranhas around here. See, Piranhas are

only where there are schools of fish. So piranhas are

never around here because there are never schools of fish

around here. He says, okay, all right, So for the

next many months he went out there and enjoyed a

dip every day. And then one day he heard about

another person from the village who went out and he

fell out of the canoe and was never seen again.

And he said, are you sure the piranhas did not

get him? And they reminded him, like, listen, we are

told you that the piranhas are not here, because the

piranhas are only where there are schools of fish. And

then he asked another question. He says, you never did

tell me, so why are there no schools of fish

around here? And they go, oh, well, there's never any

schools of fish, you know, around the alligators Thursday night.

Laugh more. You know, sometimes we don't ask the right questions.

He thought the right question was, is their piranhas around here,

And the right question was actually, why aren't there piranhas

around here? And I think a lot of us we

don't ask the right question. And the question I want

to ask you today is simply this, Who do you

say Christ is? Who is he to you? Is he

just your savior? Is he just your genie? Is he

just someone who helps you out when you're in need?

Is he someone who just makes you feel better? Or

is he your king? And if he's your king, then

he's a change to say that he has in your life.

Let's take some time to pray now. And what I

don't want to do during this prayer time today, I'm

want to do two things. One is simply this. For

those of us who are following Christ, my question simply

is this, what have you not surrendered or what in

your life has not bowed down to the King of

kings and the Lord of lords. And maybe you are

surrendered in every way and you are following him as

your king. But maybe this next few moments you just

want to pray to your king and worship him where

you are at, and you want to say, you are

my King, I worship you, I love you. So we're

just going to allow you to do that. For the

next couple of moments in prayer time, just pay homage

to your king in this room. Christ isn't your king,

He's something else to you. And maybe you've walked away

from Christ, or maybe you've never been in a relationship

of Christ, or maybe you've only experienced Him in an

emotional moment, but you've truly never given your life over

to him. I want to offer you an opportunity to

allow Christ not only to be your savior, but for

you to a sept them as your king. Just pray

this prayer along with me today. Jesus, I come to

you and I ask you to be my savior, to

be my king, to be my Lord. I ask you

today to forgive me of my sins, the Lord of

my life. Lead me, guide me, Holy Spirit, help me

to follow you. Jesus, I believe that you died on

the cross from my sins, and you were resurrected three

days later. I give you my life today. For those

of you who just prayed that prayer to come into

relationship with Christ or recommit your life to Christ, can

you just raise your hands so I can see see

that hand in the back, see that hand. Let's continue

to pray as we jump into this next time of worship.