A New Year's Resolution: Keep My Eyes Focused On Jesus

As you find your way to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, which is printed in the bulletin.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

But also if you have your own copy or if you um using your phone or tablet, I would actually encourage you to do that this morning and don't get distracted by email and text, obviously, or to-do list.

But if you have your Bible on a phone or tablet, we're going to look at a lot of scriptures, and it'd probably help you if you have that in front of you or be able to turn to it.

Also, before we read, draw your attention to the outline, which is quite extensive, but there's a mean, there's a reason behind that.

For starters, practically speaking, I hope you'll take it with you.

What I would encourage you to do is take this morning sermon, take the outline, and then preach it to yourself.

Maybe tomorrow morning, maybe throughout this week, there are many scriptures.

And the scriptures are not, by the way, so in the outline, they're not in the order that they're in the Bible, and we always do that, but they're in the order that we will read them in the sermon.

And then some are mentioned more than once.

So just know those are not typos.

Therefore, your own edification.

So as you're able, if you'll stand for the reading of God's word, which is inerrant and infallible.

We just had a Sunday school class on the Reformed faith and mentioned many times our belief and understanding that this is our highest authority.

We believe in Scripture alone as our only rule for faith and practice in life.

Beginning in verse 16.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.

Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away.

Behold, the new has come.

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.

We implore you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

For he says, In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.

Behold, now is the favorable time.

Behold, now is the day of salvation.

Thus ends our reading this morning.

The grass withers, the flower fades.

But the word of our God will stand forever.

The word of our God, the word of our God will stand forever.

The word of our God, the word of our God will stand forever.

You may be seated, and at this time kindergartners are dismissed for kids' question.

As I mentioned, there are um a number of scriptures we'll look at.

We're not going to do an expository sermon with what I just read.

We'll come back to it some, but we're going to look at a lot of passages.

Let me mention, since it's January 4 as well, that the session has granted Adam some time off, which is well deserved, and just a need for him to recharge and get those creative juices flowing.

So pray for Adam.

Pray for Jessica and the girls for a month.

They're going to take one month, so they won't be here on the Lord.

I don't know if they'll be here present physically.

They might be, but I would think not.

So pray for them.

We give thanks so much for his ministry among us.

And we also give thanks to these, I was going to say these guys, these individuals, these people, who are working really hard to lead us in worship.

Not in these more uh difficult words, but that New Year's is an enigma of sorts.

And I'm not sure I've got the right word on that.

Um it is, and I don't think I'm right to say conundrum, but here's what I'm trying to say.

In some ways, it is absolutely profound.

It is a big deal that we just passed through another year of history.

You know, 2025 is over, and there'll never be another 2025, and we are starting another year, literally in history, 2026.

At the same time, nothing really changes.

I mean, the sun came up, right?

You're going to the same place of work tomorrow, I'm guessing.

Go back to the same schools, have probably many of the same teachers that you've had.

Um, so a lot in that regard doesn't necessarily change.

A lot of people don't like change at all.

Um, they they very much like their routine.

Uh we might refer to it as a rut, lovingly, but they like their rut.

Um, I heard someone say, or actually read that they said as an older person, I like my old friends, my old books, and my old clothes.

So that's a contented individual.

It's like, leave me alone.

I'm just fine the way I am.

Um and then others thrive in change.

They love it.

Um, and for sometimes change, though, can bring not only a time of celebration, but a lot of times it brings uh pain.

It might bring some trauma into our lives.

So I want to remind you at the outset, again, follow the scriptures as I go through, and I will take more time on the longer ones, but more time to turn to it.

But in Psalm 125, verse 2, be reminded of this on January 4th.

Psalms 125:2

As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people from this time forth and forevermore.

So no matter how you assess uh 2025 in your own life, or how uh what what your expectations are for 2026, we know that some things are for certain.

One is that Jesus Christ never changes, he is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Hebrews 13, verse 8.

Hebrews 13:8

We know that if we are his, we will always be his.

There'll never be a time in your existence into eternity that you don't belong to him.

Thirdly, we know that we're not home yet.

We can look around, and it's very clear.

We're not home.

We're not in heaven.

Uh the writer of Hebrews was quite the realist.

Um, and in Hebrews chapter 11, in verse 13, it's like a reality check here.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

He says, These all died in faith.

He says, not having received the things promised.

So understand, these people of faith, they didn't get everything they were promised.

But what we learn, it says, but having seen them, having seen the promises, and having greeted them from afar, they also acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles in a foreign land.

That's the way we see ourselves.

And then he goes on in verse 16 of Hebrews 11.

But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one.

Therefore, so those who see themselves as exiles, they see themselves as strangers here, they're they're really not comfortable being a Christian, being light in darkness.

This we says, therefore, those people who understand that, God is not ashamed to be called their God.

For he has prepared for them a city.

A city, as Lee referred to it last week in his sermon, a city without tears.

A city without pain, a city without cancer, a city without dementia, a city without without any disobedience whatsoever.

No pain.

And then lastly, the things that we're certain of, we're certain of, I we are certain we can run to him.

We can run to him, we can jump in his lap.

We can run into his loving arms.

As I prayed earlier, we can ask for forgiveness to this God and know he's gonna forgive us.

No, he is not going to reject us.

He's not gonna send you away.

He's not gonna say, I'm done with you.

He's not even gonna send you to time out.

He's just gonna hug you.

He's gonna love you and tell you that you're forgiven.

And that's a safe place to be.

I did read it this way too when we are in the presence of God.

It's like moving out of a severe storm into a safe harbor.

That's what we want to do this morning.

We want to find ourselves in a safe harbor.

We want to go to what we know is a constant in our lives and does not change with each passing year.

We want to go to the one, the one who never changes, Jesus of Nazareth, and go to his glorious, life-giving, redemptive gospel.

So we'll go to Jesus, the cross, the good news.

Let me read a quote from John Stott.

The cross is the blazing fire at which the flame of our love is kindled.

But we have to get near enough for its sparks to fall on us.

And then Jerry Bridges says the gospel is not only the most important message in history, it's the only essential message in history.

So let's start with uh what is the gospel?

And when we ask the question, if I really were, it's sitting across the table from you and say, What do you think the gospel is?

A lot of people would be confused by that.

Um, there are a lot of facets to the gospel, understand that.

Don't stumble over its simplicity.

But but still, there's an understanding.

There are some who are actually confused as to a definition of the gospel, but they believe the gospel and they're Christians, but many who don't understand the gospel, obviously they they're not Christians.

Uh, there would be those who respond to that kind of question, what's the gospel?

Uh, with consternation.

You know, there might there might be some bitterness in their heart.

I don't want anything to do with that.

I was hurt by the church, or I don't trust God.

And then there are those who receive it with great confidence.

They know very well and they can spell it out for you.

But again, I say to you, don't stumble over its simplicity.

That's that's what we're looking at, too, the simplicity of it all.

And it begins, the gospel addresses beginning, addressing our our our our our need and our answer.

I'm sorry, the answer to our greatest need, which is sin.

I've preached, I think, four times in the last six weeks, and I think this is the third time that it's come up, but I'm not really trying to do it.

It's just there.

Our greatest need is not, and we've gone through a lot of things, but just to know this morning, it's not financial.

Your greatest need is not social.

Um, it has, it's not, it's not, your greatest need is not your health.

Uh, it's not your grades, young people, it's not friendships, uh, it's not your mom and dad.

My greatest need is my lack of righteousness.

There is none righteous, no, not one.

And I fall into that category.

You and I, the worldwide, humanity, that's Romans 3, 10 to 12.

And then we know that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Romans 3, 23.

My greatest problem, the greatest problem of every single human being is that we're alienated from God.

Therefore, my greatest need is to be reconciled to this God.

Enter a loving father, be in the outline.

The gospel is about a father's love for his chosen children.

We might say said child children.

That he loved us, and he loved us first, and his love precedes our love, and his love is eternal, and he took the initiative to come toward you, a sinner and an enemy.

He came towards you because of his love for you, an unconditional love for you, to you.

Didn't do anything to deserve it, nothing that even caught his attention that you were doing.

It's all his grace.

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5, verse 8.

Romans 5:8

You know, it's actually God reconciling himself to us.

It's not so much, it's certainly not our reconciling ourselves to God on our own, but really it's God.

God, think again, the humility, the condescension of him to our need is that he came to reconcile himself to us.

For our sake, this is 2 Corinthians 5, 21.

You might want to turn to that one.

We're going to go back and forth to this one, but for our sake, he, God, made him, Jesus, to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Us.

We, us.

For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life.

You want the gospel in three words?

God stepped in.

If that's all you want to know about the gospel, right now, I mean, just we know it greater.

I'm just saying, just take that, take it in its simplicity.

God stepped in.

He stepped into humanity, he stepped into this world, he stepped into you, he stepped into your heart to save you with his love to reconcile himself to you.

So then we become ambassadors for reconciliation.

We of all people on the earth know what reconciliation is.

We know what peace is with other people and with our God.

So we take that message out.

Now, how did he do that?

We know why now, but how did he do it?

See, the gospel centers on the sinless life, the punishing death, and the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Again, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21.

2 Corinthians 5:21

For our sake, he, okay, God, made Jesus who knew no sin to be sinned.

He never knew sin.

He never sinned.

And we say, well, but could he but he was divine too?

Yeah, but he was sinless in his humanity.

The divine is sinless.

But he, as a man like you and me, never sinned.

There was never a time that he didn't love the Father with all his heart, soul, strength, and mind.

Never a time that he didn't love his neighbor as himself perfectly.

He's the perfect Lamb of God.

And that's why we don't have a high priest who's unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.

He knows that.

He understands.

He was tempted in every way you are, yet without sin.

You think of any way you've been tempted.

Think of what you've been tempted this morning.

Tempted to things you look at, tempted to gossip, tempted to lie, tempted to not obey your mom and dad.

Jesus was tempted by everything.

He was tempted by every single thing.

And he never sinned.

He never did it.

So he could be our sacrifice.

And this is the great exchange.

This is what's so amazing in 2 Corinthians 5.21, the last part of it, don't forget that's theological.

This is the great exchange, okay?

So that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

The ones who sin, who seem to be always sinning.

We become the righteousness of God.

Here's another simple phrase for the gospel to understand it.

A substitute took your place.

Someone else took your place.

And it's not so much that God doesn't count our sins against us, He doesn't.

But think about this: He counted your sin against someone else.

Someone else took everything you deserved on Himself, and then He gave you His righteous.

And he just give it to you, He imputed it to you.

So it's yours You are righteous.

You are righteous in God's sight.

He didn't stop there.

He made you a child.

D.

The gospel affords me the status of sonship.

If you're familiar with the hymn, It is Well with My Soul.

And it says, The whole of my sin is nailed to the cross.

I bear it no more.

It is well with my soul.

My salvation was accomplished at the cross.

My salvation was not accomplished when I put faith in Jesus.

It was already accomplished.

He accomplished my salvation 2,000 years ago.

I couldn't help but be saved because I was chosen and he died for me and he took away my sin.

He accomplished my salvation on a hill called Calvary.

How do I know?

How would I know if I'm truly saved?

Because anyone who is in Christ is a new creation.

That's really how you know.

There are a lot of other ways to know, but that's one way you know the old is gone and the new has come.

All grace.

All grace.

So who is he?

We get a little bit deeper, really, when we ask that.

What's the gospel?

Now we're going to get deeper and say, who is Jesus?

And we learn, A, Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

Again, probably third time in the last six weeks to be told, Jesus said, If you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

Have you ever seen Jesus bending down and saying, Suffer the children to come to me?

Ever seen him bend down and take a child in his arms, then you've seen the Father.

If you've ever seen Jesus weep at the tomb of a good friend, then you've seen the Father.

If you've seen Jesus take a walk with his disciple down the beach and you've heard him ask him three times, Do you love me?

Then you've seen the Father.

If you've seen Jesus on his knees in Gethsemane, crying to the point, in his humanity, by the way, just like you and me, crying and sweating drops of blood, you've seen the Father.

If you've ever heard him say, Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.

You've seen the Father.

If you've ever heard God say, Abraham, Abraham, or Jacob, Jacob, or Martha, Martha, Mary, Mary, your name twice, twice meaning the double knocks, which is a deep, deep personal, intimate address, then you've seen the Father.

And he has called you by name twice in that way.

For God so loved you, he gave his son.

The Father loved you.

He loved you.

He sent his son.

Jesus also, we learn, is preeminent.

Here's a longer one if you want to turn.

Colossians 1, 13 to 20.

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

In other words, he is before creation.

He's before time.

For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Just to bring it, I mean, to simplify the thing, is just to say he created everything and he now sustains everything.

That's his preeminence.

Then he goes on, Colossians 1, verse 18.

Colossians 1:18

He is the head of the body, the church.

He's the head of the universal church.

The universal church is the true church.

This is the visible church.

You can be in this church right here by making a public profession of faith.

And you did.

You joined this church, you made a public profession of faith.

Not everyone who makes a public profession of faith is a Christian.

Now we'd like to think that.

We would believe and hope everybody, Coba Park, is a Christian.

But that's not necessarily, it doesn't just make you a Christian to make a public profession of faith.

So you're in the visible church.

The invisible church is made up of those who truly believe, put their faith in him, and it's past, present, and future.

They're in heaven and they're here and they're yet to be born.

And Jesus is the head.

He baptizes them with his Holy Spirit.

And then the last part of this verse is He is the beginning, this passage, verse 18.

He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

He's the first one to raise in an immortal body.

Immortality.

We will be raised to immortality one day, but not yet.

He was the first.

And then here's the end of that passage, actually.

Colossians 1 19, for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Thirdly, he's worthy.

Just going to read through these revelation passages.

They sang a new song saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open his seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people from God from every tribe and language and people and nation.

And you have made them a kingdom and priest to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.

They said with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who is slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.

And that one's your Savior, D, the point D, but he's your Savior.

Who is he in relation to the Father?

He is the image of the Father.

He's the image of God.

What's his relationship to creation?

Creator and sustainer.

What's his relationship to the church?

He's the head.

What is his relationship to you sitting in the pews right now this morning?

He's your savior.

And he loves you dearly.

When we confess our sins, sometimes we might want to say, He saved me from that.

You know, it's like you just keep bringing sins to him.

And maybe you bring them habitually.

We need to get away from our habitual sins.

Obviously, we repent, but we come to him again and we say, He would forgive me again?

Yes.

He would forgive me for that?

Yes.

Whatever it is, you may think he wouldn't.

He will.

In conclusion, let's go through these.

They're very practical things.

I hope you'll do.

Rehearse these texts, okay, that what we've just looked at, and there are many, many more.

One that is not listed there is Isaiah 61, 1 to 3.

Listen, think about your Savior.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to grant to those who mourn in Zion, to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit, that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

I've never memorized that, but I'm going to memorize it.

Maybe through January.

But I'm saying that because if anybody wants to join me in memorizing that, text me, call me, email me.

Let's do that together.

Isaiah 61, 1 to 3, okay?

I just thought of that this morning, actually, when I was reading it.

Um, sing gospel hymns, and I don't mean by that the old-timey gospel, though you might and they're great, but I'm just saying hymns that point you to the gospel, hymns with deep theology about Jesus and salvation.

I'm a firm believer, second to the Bible in your quiet time should be a hymnal.

It may be foreign to you, it should not be.

There are, uh I was thinking about the time, but um, not like I could, well, yeah.

I was thinking maybe a Sunday school class or two sometime on how to use a hymnal.

Maybe get Adam to help too.

Maybe I could teach where just as a layman and he can be the musician and talk about how easy it is to look them up, even by meter and by all these things, by category, and you find rich-rich theology.

I encourage you to at least be thinking that way this year.

This word, the gospel, number three is the gospel.

So you're preaching to yourself, and you want to say, This is who God is, this is what I am, a sinner, this is what Jesus came to do for me, and this is how I received it.

And just repeat it over and over and over.

My father, number four, my father loves me, he always has loved me, and he's ransomed me by the blood of his son.

How uh how many times does it come up in your confession that you want to be forgiven for the sake of Christ?

That's kind of foreign to me, but I'm learning it's all through scripture in the Old Testament, for the sake of your goodness, for the sake of your faithfulness, for the sake of your people, all these things, for the sake of who you are, God, in the New Testament, often for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Forgive me for my sin, for the sake of Christ.

And then remember, it's all about Jesus.

It's not about you.

What a great, humble way to begin a new year.

It's not about you.

Whatever you do for a living, whatever you are in your family, whatever, whoever you are, whoever you are in the community, it's not about you.

It's all about Jesus.

All about Jesus.

And you can do these five things, make it part of a habit or ritual of sorts.

You know, you can do it when you're getting ready in the morning or when you're driving, doing the dishes, working out, put notes on your bathroom mirror, whatever it takes for you to be constantly thinking and pointing your eyes toward Jesus.

I really believe you'll take this on the first Lord's Day of 26.

I think you should see this as a foundation for you, that you will have a distinct joy in 2026, marked spiritual growth in 2026, a special awareness of the presence of Jesus in your life in 26, a greater awareness of just how much you've been forgiven in 2026, and a greater awareness of just how loved you really are in 26.

Now, I want to move to the table, but I want to say this in closing and moving to the table.

If you're a believer, then I know the word doesn't return void.

So I know the Holy Spirit is at work, and the Holy Spirit takes his word, and he moves in you in certain ways.

There's certain emotions that you're experiencing right now because of the word of God.

And there's joy and there's peace, there's thanksgiving or a grateful heart, hope, uh, confidence, even, and a sense of endurance.

Now, if you're an unbeliever and you sense emotions within your soul, within your heart this morning, the emotions are not the same.

He's offering you the joy and the hope.

And it's it is within reach, by the way, it's right there.

Um, it's more like emotions of fear or afraid or doubts.

Maybe there's sort of a darkness, a misunderstanding of all this.

That's the Holy Spirit.

Don't underestimate the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart right now.

The table is for believers.

Um, some people don't come to the to the front because they have the other reasons.

Maybe they can't get, we can, by the way, we can get the communion to you where you're seated.

Um, but so anybody we don't judge that.

We don't look at people and say, oh, he didn't go to the table.

I wonder what's going on in his life.

Well, we don't do that.

So maybe stay where you are.

If you're an unbeliever, stay where you are and witness this and then be reconciled to God this week and come back next week.

Take communion, take the Lord's Supper with God's people.

This is a message without words, right here.

This is the gospel without words.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you so much for what you have done for us, the least of which not being you gave us your word that's living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword.

It's the very mind of God in print, and you've given us the ability this morning to understand.

Lord, we pray it goes beyond some intellectual understanding that these things might be true.

But Lord, real understanding, Spirit of God, that you have caused us to really get it.

And we are forever grateful.

We fall on our knees, we come to the table humbly, but also celebrating.

We come sorry for our sins, but also assured of the pardon that you gave us earlier in the service.

And even in our hearts right now, we rejoice as we come to eat this meal with you, Lord Jesus.

In your name we pray.

Amen.