The Gospel: Christ

Amen.

Well, good morning again.

Man, well, uh, if if you're just joining us this morning, if you haven't been here in a while, maybe this is your first time, we are right in the middle of a series called the Gospel.

The gospel is a phrase we often hear connected to Jesus.

The gospel is essentially the message of Jesus.

It's the story that God has been writing throughout all of human history.

It's a story of God bringing us to himself, bringing us into a relationship with himself and overcoming anything, anything that would stand in our way of knowing him and being known by him.

And so, as we've talked about this over the last few weeks, we've just highlighted the fact that it's kind of a complicated story.

Maybe you're someone who has given your life to Jesus or you're contemplating that, but there's there's all these things you don't understand.

There's all these moments in the Bible, maybe, that you read and you're like, why would God do that?

Why would God do it that way?

Sometimes we get tripped up in our desire to grow because we don't quite understand the story.

And confusion is not our friend.

We've got to eliminate confusion so we can grow, especially so we can grow aggressively.

It's hard to be aggressive if you're confused.

And so what we've been doing this this whole time over the last month is breaking the Bible into separate chapters, trying to cover the entire story of the Bible in about eight weeks, which is somewhat ambitious, and so obviously we've got a lot of ground to cover, but we want to know the story as best we can so we can play our part in the story.

Because that's the really beautiful thing.

God has invited all of us to play a part in his story.

But we've got to understand the story that we're in.

And so here's the way we've broken this down, eight different chapters.

We started with creation, all the words begin with C, because why not?

Creation led to crash.

We talked about that a few weeks ago.

From crash, we go to covenant.

Covenant is this agreement that is made between us and God.

We covered that last week.

From covenant, we get to Christ.

From Christ, we go to the cross.

From the cross, we go to a moment where God conquers everything.

From that moment of conquering, we get to creation again, but it's a new creation.

And then from the new creation, we get to covenant, but a new covenant.

So those are the chapters that we're going through today.

We're on Christ.

But before we jump into this chapter, I have to start by saying, by saying, oops.

Okay, let me explain.

I shared when this series first began how excited I was, because I realized as I as I planned all this out that Easter was going to fall right in the middle of this series.

And if you know me well, you know that I'm not a planner.

You are, I'm not someone you would come to and say, hey, I've got something big going on.

Will you organize it for me?

Will you be in charge of the little details?

That would be disastrous.

So things like calendars, they're they're foreign to me, agendas, things like that.

I have downloaded so many apps on my phone that will get me organized, I just never opened those apps.

That's how I'm wired.

And so I got really excited whenever I started to put this series down on paper because I realized that Easter was not only in the middle of the series, I had planned to just take a break from the series on Easter, do Easter as its own thing.

I thought I heard something from God of what to talk about, so I was excited about that.

Um, but I realized that Easter was gonna fall right after cross.

And I was so excited because I'm like, oh, if you know the story of Easter, that happened right after the cross, and clearly this is a God thing.

I gave the Holy Spirit all the credit because it would be a miracle from God if I actually planned a calendar that well.

And so I shared that with you guys, and then I realized on Tuesday of this week that Easter is this upcoming Sunday, and we're on Christ, and so it doesn't come after cross, it comes after Christ.

But the beautiful thing about giving God all the credit when things go well is that then you can give him all the blame when it doesn't go well.

So on Tuesday I'm sitting here going, hey, Holy Spirit, where are we on that one?

Like, why wouldn't you tell me?

Why wouldn't you show me the fact that I messed the calendar up before I said it to the whole church?

What gives?

And so um, so yeah, so here's kind of what happened after that.

I'm thinking, how can I make this work?

Because I was so excited and I'll be honest, somewhat you know, proud of the fact that this could line up that way, that that this Easter moment could just be part of the series, and it would look like I had this brilliant plan the whole time.

And I thought I've got to figure out a way to make this work.

So I thought about combining Christ today with cross, that way we could still hit Easter and we could talk about God conquering everything.

But the hard thing there was that the word conquer is the perfect word.

A fourth grader at our church, by the way, gave me that word for Easter because I couldn't think of a word that began with C.

And it's the perfect word to describe Easter, but it's not what God put on my heart to share at Easter, and I'm sitting there going, God, what should I do?

How can I make this work?

And and God just said, Why don't you do what I told you to do in the first place?

Like, how about instead of you trying to make it work, why don't you just talk about what I told you to talk about on Easter?

And then how about you you just start your series after that, like you plan to?

And by the way, go ahead and keep talking about that whole conquer thing when it comes up because that fourth grade girl was on to something.

And so I said, okay.

I just said, All right, God, I I will do that.

I will do that.

And so, suffice it to say, uh, we're going to take a break from this series.

Next week we're gonna celebrate Easter.

If you didn't know, by the way, Easter is next Sunday, which is really, really exciting.

I mean, it I can it is really exciting.

You I mean, it's just that we've had like 2,000 something Easters.

You don't have to fake it, you don't have to fake it.

It's all good.

No, Easter is actually really exciting, and I do want to take a second kind of to pause and encourage you, please be here.

We've got three services, 8 o'clock in the morning, which you have the the people at 11 are not coming at 8.

They're not.

So if you guys don't come at 8, no one's gonna be here.

You need to be here at 8, all right?

Just make that decision.

Uh we also have a 9:30 get together and an 11:30 get together.

Each one will last an hour, and I want to encourage you to bring someone.

Like, bring someone with you.

That there's something so special about that, about being able to be a person who gets to bring someone else to Jesus, to be part of that process.

My family started going to church because a family across the street invited us to church, and then shortly after that, correct me if I'm wrong, mom and dad, but that person was arrested for embezzling a lot of money from the company that they worked in.

And I share that, just to share, that I would not be a Jesus follower, nor would I be up here right now if a criminal had not invited my family to church.

Okay?

So if you've ever wondered whether or not God can use you, the answer is yes.

He's not picky.

Just invite someone to church and bring them with you Easter Sunday.

It's gonna be a good day.

Okay, so so this whole last week was kind of a blur for me as I was trying to figure out how to make Easter work with this, and as God was like, no, just do what I did in the first place.

And and it was actually a big moment for me, a big moment of clarity when God said, just do what I told you to do.

Stop trying to make it all work.

Stop trying to make a casserole out of my plan and your plan.

Does that make sense, that analogy, by the way?

We're in the south, we understand casseroles, right?

Is there anyone here who has never eaten a casserole?

Maybe you just moved here from Wisconsin.

I don't know why you wouldn't have eaten a casserole or something like that.

Because I'll never forget, I'm not from the South originally, but I married a Southern family, like a true Southern family.

Megan's parents are from Savannah, so it's it's a true Southern family.

And I'll never forget the first time I had a holiday meal at their house.

And I look at all the food, and it's not what I'm used to seeing.

There are no vegetables that I can I can find.

I asked Megan, hey, where are the vegetables?

She goes, Oh, that's broccoli casserole.

I'm like, what's that?

Well, it's broccoli, and then you cover it with cream and cheese, and then you put some crackers on top of it, cover that in butter, put some more cheese just in case, and then that's broccoli casserole.

And I'm like, okay, well, what's that?

That's green bean casserole.

Well, what's green bean casserole?

Well, you say green beans, cover it with cheese, some cream, some other good stuff, then you just, you know, put some crackers and some butter and some cheese on top of that and bake it, and that's a broccoli casserole.

And I stopped her and I said, Are you telling me that there's not one vegetable that we're gonna eat today that is not covered in cheese or cream?

And she said, Yeah, I guess that's true.

And that's when I decided that we had to move back to the South.

Like we had to.

We were living in Kansas City at the time, and I said, we've got to get back to the South because that that's that's great.

In my opinion, that's that's great.

I like casseroles.

I just want you to understand that when I use that analogy of a casserole earlier as a bad thing, I'm not saying I'm anti-casserole.

Because to say that in the South would be like pitchforks and torches.

I'm not saying that.

Okay?

I'm just saying that there are some things that need to stand on their own.

I've never heard of someone making a filet mignon casserole, or like a Kobe beef casserole, or someone saying, Oh, we went and we caught a fresh lobster, and then, you know, we just smothered it in a bunch of other stuff and put breadcumbs on top of it.

And, you know, yeah, that would probably taste fine, but there are some things that are so good that you don't want to muddle it with something else.

You just want it to stand on its own.

You want to experience it in its purest form.

And God's plan is like that.

Like when God has a plan, when there's something He wants to do, it's always a temptation for us to muddle it up with other things, to add in our own, or try to make His plan fit our plan.

And when we do that, when we try to make a casserole out of what God wants and what we want, it just doesn't turn out nearly as good as if we just surrendered and said, I'll have what you want me to have.

And so this week for me was a week of surrender, of me saying, okay, I'll lay aside that desire I have to be the planner, to be the one that has a plan and looks like he has it together, because I don't, and I'll just do what you say.

And so I'm so excited about next week.

I just can't even tell you how excited I am about it.

And I'm also excited about today, you know, we're talking about Christ.

Up to now, the the word that begins with C has been casserole.

I apologize for that.

And so let's just go ahead and get to what we need to talk about.

Let's talk about Christ.

When we talk about Christ, we obviously mean Jesus.

And sometimes you'll hear people call him Jesus, sometimes you'll hear people call him Christ, sometimes it's it's Jesus Christ.

And what we need to understand first and foremost is that Christ is not his name, it's a title.

He is not the child of Mr.

and Mrs.

Christ.

Jesus is his name.

Christ comes from a Greek word Christos, which is the Greek equivalent of a Hebrew word that roughly sounds like Messiah.

So Christ is our translation of a Greek word that was a translation of a word that meant Messiah.

And part of the story, part of the story that God was creating throughout history was this promise of a messiah, of a savior.

The word messiah means anointed one, someone that's been set apart for a special purpose by God.

And so last week we talked about this covenant that God gave his people, this covenant with Moses, this law, and God promised the people, he said, look, if you will obey the law, if you will obey my covenant, if you'll keep it, I will bless you like I've never blessed a nation in this world.

You will be so blessed, you will be so successful, no enemy that is against you will be able to stand a chance if you'll just keep my commandments.

And this is an agreement that people entered into with God, and it came with a great promise, but people didn't keep the agreement.

We walked away from God, and we actually walked away from God pretty quickly.

And when we walked away from God, we walked away from his promise.

And so the nation of Israel went from being this nation that was blessed, that was a conquering nation, that that had might, that had power, and quickly it became a nation that was being oppressed constantly by other nations.

Much of the Old Testament, as you read it, is the writings of these prophets who are living on the other side of Israel being conquered.

And all these promises that God had made to Israel through Moses, all these promises of blessing, they seem like they're lost.

All hope seems lost, but in the midst of the hopelessness comes a new promise from God, and it's the promise of a Messiah.

There's so much scripture promising a Messiah.

Maybe one of the most beautiful and clearest pictures we have is Isaiah chapter 53.

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

And I just want to read this chapter.

It's fairly short, but this whole chapter is a prophecy of the coming Messiah.

This is centuries before Jesus would actually arrive on the scene.

Who has believed our message?

To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm?

My servant grew up in the Lord's presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground.

There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him.

He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.

We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.

He was despised and we did not care.

Yet it was our weakness he carried.

It was our sorrows that weighed him down, and we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins, but he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins.

He was beaten so we could be whole.

He was whipped so we could be healed.

All of us like sheep have strayed away.

We have left God's paths to follow our own.

Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.

He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word.

He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep is silent before the shears, his mouth did not open.

Unjustly condemned, he was led away.

No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream, but he was struck down for the rebellion of my people.

He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone, but he was buried like a criminal, he was put in a rich man's grave.

But it was the Lord's good plan to crush him and cause him grief.

Yet when his life is made as an offering for sin, he will have many descendants, he will enjoy a long life, and the Lord's good plan will prosper in his hands.

When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied.

And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous.

For he will bear all their sins.

I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier, because he exposed himself to death.

He was counted among the rebels, he bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.

These prophecies about Jesus.

I love this, by the way, because this is a prophecy about something that hasn't happened yet, written as if it's already happened.

And it's a reminder to me that when God says something will happen, even if it's centuries away, it's happened.

When God says it will happen, it might as well have already happened.

It's that certain.

The Old Testament is filled with these prophecies about Jesus, these prophecies of a Messiah.

And so if we're gonna understand Christ, if we're gonna understand this chapter in the story, if we're gonna understand Jesus, and by the way, pretty important that we do, he plays a fairly large role in the story.

If we're gonna understand Christ, we have to understand this concept of Messiah.

And it's very nuanced, it's it's all through the Bible, and so I could go on and on and on, you guys know that, about what the Messiah really means.

But I want to show you a video, just like we did last week.

I introduced you guys last week to a group called the Bible Project, an amazing group that just takes honestly difficult concepts in scripture and in a beautiful visual way, I think makes them very, very easy to understand.

I really encourage you to go check them out sometime, support them if you want to, they're incredible.

But I want to show you the Bible Project's video on the Messiah, and then we'll pick it back up from there.

So take a look at this.

So that's it.

Uh avoid this fruit tree and refined.

Right, it seems pretty simple.

But in this garden, there's a snake, and it starts telling a different story.

It says that if you eat of this tree, it's not going to kill you.

In fact, it's going to make you become like God.

And Adam and Eve, they believe the snake and they eat the fruit.

And because of this, the goodness of the garden is tragically lost, and evil and death enters into God's good world.

Now, why is there a talking snake in the garden?

I mean, this thing is a problem.

Yeah, it's very strange.

And even more strange is the fact that the Bible doesn't say why or how this thing even got there.

It just presents the snake as this creature who's in rebellion against God and that wants to get other people to doubt God's goodness and lead them on a path towards death.

And so, whatever this snake is, it's the source of evil that pervades our world and our lives, even still today.

But there is some hope because right here in the story, God makes this really interesting promise to Adam and Eve.

That someone is going to come in the future, a son of Eve.

And this guy's gonna come and he's gonna crush the serpent's head and destroy evil at its source.

However, during this battle, the serpent is going to bite this guy's heel.

So it's like a mutual destruction.

Yeah, it's this very strange but beautiful promise.

And it's just left hanging there until the next key moment in the story, when God singles out this guy named Abraham and says that through his family, goodness and blessing is going to be restored back to all of the nations of the world.

And as we follow this family, we get to one of Abraham's great-grandsons, this guy named Judah.

And he receives this promise that a king is going to come from his line, and that the whole world's going to follow this king, and he's going to bring peace and harmony, and there'll be lots of food and wine and milk and vineyards, and it's going to be awesome.

The first king that we meet from the line of Judah is a guy named King David, and he's a hero.

Maybe he is the snake crusher.

But it turns out that David is infected with the same evil as the rest of humanity.

He never crushes the snake, just the opposite.

However, God makes a promise to David that this king is going to eventually come from his line.

But as you go on in the story, one by one, each generation of his sons, they're just total chumps.

They give into the snake, they choose evil, they go after money and sex and power and following other gods.

Things get so bad that they run the nation of Israel right into the ground, and the big bad Empire of Babylon just takes them out.

And so now there are no more kings to even fulfill this promise.

So it seems like the whole plan is lost.

But during these dark days, there's this crazy group of guys called prophets, and they just kept talking about this coming king and reminding us of the promise that he'll come, he'll defeat evil, he'll restore the garden.

Now, one specific prophet, Isaiah, he tells us more about why this king is bitten.

Isaiah says that the promised king receives this wound because of humanity's evil, and that it kills him.

But then all of a sudden he comes back.

And Isaiah says it's because he suffered this wound that he can now become a source of healing to other people.

But the Old Testament ends, and the snake-crushing king that everyone's been talking about never shows up.

And this is why, when the New Testament begins, it introduces us to Jesus of Nazareth, not as some random guy, but as someone who comes to fulfill these specific ancient promises.

Yeah, we learn that he's from the line of David, Judah, and Abraham.

And he goes around Israel announcing that the goodness of God's kingdom is here, now.

And he begins confronting the effects of evil on people by healing them, by forgiving them of their sins and evil.

Many people are now believing that this is, in fact, the promised king.

But Jesus began telling his closest followers that he was going to become king and bring peace by taking the full effect of humanity's evil into himself.

The fatal snake-bite womb.

Exactly.

And so it seems like the serpent wins.

And this story actually would be a tragedy, except for what happens next.

Jesus rises from the dead.

And now Jesus has the power over evil and death for himself.

And so the rest of the New Testament is then making this claim that Jesus' power over evil and death has now become available to us to begin confronting the effects of evil in our lives.

But even still, death and evil are a real problem in our world all around us.

And so the story of the Bible ends by describing this future day when Jesus comes back and he finishes the job.

I love those videos.

We're going to be showing several of those throughout this series, just because, you know, maybe like a stretch goal you might say for this series is I want the Bible to come to life for us.

And there's this ideology, this idea out there that, you know, everyday people can't really understand the Bible, and so we just need to let someone else read it, understand it, and give us the pieces that matter.

No, you were created by God to have a rich relationship with Him and a rich understanding of who He is.

And I'm always grateful when God puts people on this earth that have a gift to make God's word more clear and more understandable.

It helps me.

I hope it helps you guys, so definitely check them out.

So that's the Messiah.

The Messiah is a promise made by God in the very beginning.

As soon as things fell apart, God says, look, there will come a day when someone will reign victorious over sin, over death.

And then we see countless things throughout the Bible happen that lead to Jesus.

And as I watch that video, as I kind of prepared for this week, I was reminded that from the beginning it was always Jesus.

And not only was it always Jesus, it could only be Jesus.

The story of the Bible tells us that the answer for life, the answer for our struggles, the answer for our for our shortcomings is always Jesus, and it's it's only Jesus.

I mean, it seems sometimes like Jesus just shows up in the middle of the story out of nowhere, but that's not the case.

It's always been him.

Always from the very beginning.

We looked at a verse a few weeks ago.

It's Ephesians 1, 4 through 5, and that verse just says that from the very beginning, God wanted to bring us into his presence, to bring us into his family through Jesus.

This was his plan all along.

That's what it says.

It was his plan all along that he wanted to bring us into his family by bringing himself to us through Christ.

This is what he planned from the very get-go.

It brought him great pleasure.

So from the beginning, the plan was Jesus.

Jesus was not plan B.

Jesus was not the contingency plan.

Jesus was not God going, oh man, things have gotten way out of control.

What am I gonna do?

I guess I've got to send you my son.

It's always been Jesus.

And if you read the Old Testament, you'll see just picture after picture of Jesus in incredible fashion.

For example, there's this moment in the Old Testament with Moses.

There's this moment called Passover, a very intense moment.

The people of Egypt have been enslaved.

The people of Israel, rather, have been enslaved in Egypt, and Moses is sent to free the people.

But Pharaoh doesn't want to let his slaves go.

Pharaoh turns out to be a very stubborn person.

When you believe you're God, you tend to be stubborn.

And so Moses keeps going to Pharaoh and he says, Let my people go, and Pharaoh says no.

And so every time Pharaoh says no, God sends a plague to Egypt to convince Pharaoh that he is not God, that God in fact is God, and that Pharaoh needs to listen to God, but Pharaoh resists.

All the way up until the tenth plague.

The tenth plague is by far the worst.

And the tenth plague is that the spirit of death passes over the nation of Egypt and it takes all the firstborn.

But God protects the people of Israel.

And here's what he says to the people of Israel.

He says, I want you to take the blood of a lamb, and I want you to paint its blood on your doorframe, the doorframe to your home.

And if you paint the blood on the doorframe to your home and you do as I asked, the spirit of death will pass over your home.

That's why it's called Passover.

And he was specific in how he wanted that blood painted on the doorframe.

He wanted some blood put on the top of the doorframe.

He wanted some blood put on each side.

And if you put blood on the top of a doorframe, it's going to drip down, it's going to pull at the bottom.

And if you were to draw a line connecting those points of blood, you would have top to bottom, you would have left to right, you would have a cross.

You would also have spots of blood at the exact places that Jesus was pierced when he was placed onto the cross, the crown of thorns on his head, the nail in his feet, the nails in his hands or his wrists.

And so here you have over a thousand years before Jesus' coming, and there's a picture of the cross that just like the nation of Israel was spared from death, saved from the spirit of death by the blood of the Lamb in the shape of a cross, that the Lamb of God, Jesus, would die on the cross, and his blood would cause death's power, sin's power, to pass over us as well.

It's always been Jesus.

You can look at a story like the story of Abraham and his son Isaac in Genesis chapter 22, a very, very odd story.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

One of those stories that we might read and go, Oh, I didn't think God would do something like that.

This doesn't seem like the God I've I've entrusted.

This doesn't seem like Jesus.

Because God speaks to Abraham and he says, Hey, Abraham, you know your son Isaac, who you love so much.

And Abraham says, Yes, I know about Isaac.

You promised Isaac to me.

That was part of the promise God made Abraham.

I will give you a son.

He had no children.

And Isaac was the son of his promise.

He said, Okay, I want you to take Isaac, I want you to take him up the mountain where you offer sacrifices, and I want you to sacrifice Isaac on that altar to me.

And Abraham is obviously confused.

This is not something that God would ever ask him to do.

In fact, child sacrifice was a really common practice of the cultures of that day, and it was those very cultures that God instructed the Israelites to wipe out as they went through the promised land.

That is not something that God would stand for, and yet God tells Abraham to do this.

It's crazy.

And Isaac's not a baby, Isaac's old enough to understand what would be happening.

And so Abraham goes and he gets Isaac and he says, Hey, let's go up this mountain.

We're going to offer a sacrifice to God.

And they go, and it's a three-day journey.

And on the very last leg of the journey, Isaac himself carries the wood for his sacrifice on his own shoulders.

And it becomes pretty clear to him, he understands what's going on.

He can look around and say, Okay, I've got this wood on my shoulders.

I don't see a lamb.

I don't see an animal to sacrifice.

That's how they they worshiped in those days.

They made sacrifices to God and he realizes it's me.

And so Isaac willingly gets on the altar, puts the wood down himself, but God stops Abraham because that was never God's plan.

And right at the very last second, there's this lamb that just shows up that's provided.

Very odd story.

Very, very odd story, but it's odd for a reason.

Anytime you read something, by the way, in the Bible that seems very odd, take notice.

Because that's probably God trying to say something.

Something he wants us to see.

And what we have to realize is that story, it's Jesus.

It's Jesus.

Because just like in that story, God has replaced the need for our own sacrifice with a spotless lamb, with Jesus, with someone innocent.

And just like in that story, Jesus knew that he was going to be our sacrifice, and he carried the wood of his sacrifice on his own shoulders, just like Isaac carried his wood.

Jesus carried his own cross.

And just like with Isaac and Abraham, it was a three-day journey for Jesus from death to resurrection.

What's really interesting, what's really amazing is that right after God spares Isaac and provides the sacrifice, Abraham builds a little altar to God on that very place.

And in Genesis chapter 22, Abraham named the place Yahweh Yireh, which means the Lord will provide.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

To this day, people still use that name as a proverb.

On the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided.

Now keep in mind, this was written centuries before Jesus showed up.

That mountain was Mount Moriah, and guess where Jesus was crucified?

On Mount Moriah.

See, it's Jesus.

Just all through scripture, it's picture after picture after picture of Jesus.

It's always been Jesus.

And not only has it always been Jesus, it could only be Jesus.

He's the only one qualified to solve the problem.

He's the only one qualified.

I have things happen all the time in my life that I recognize I'm not qualified for this.

And rather than me try to take care of it myself, I just reach out to people who are qualified.

If I didn't do that, I would stumble through life.

I recognize there are things I'm not qualified to do.

And like we talked about last week, when we look at the law and when we see what God's standard of righteousness is, we can look at ourselves and go, yep, not qualified to do this.

But there is someone who is, and it's Jesus, and it can only be Jesus.

See, in order to be the one to solve the problem, you have to be someone who has the problem solved.

And not one person who's ever lived has solved the problem of sin, but Jesus did.

He was that spotless lamb.

He was blameless.

And it's one thing for us to stand here and say that, you know, as Jesus followers, we're in church to say Jesus was spotless and go, yeah, but have you ever noticed that no one has any dirt on Jesus?

Isn't that amazing?

There are some people out there who will say that they don't believe Jesus existed, and if there's someone who says that, by the way, they just ignore history.

Because we have more, and I'm not just talking about the Bible, we have more extra biblical evidence of Jesus' existence than we have of so many historical figures in history's past that if you want to say that Jesus didn't exist, you have to say that a lot of people who everyone believes existed existed.

I guess there's not even a question.

But but because he's Jesus, it would be really convenient for people who want to dismiss him, who want to say, Yeah, I don't want to follow that guy, to find something about him worth dismissing him for, right?

But you can't.

People couldn't do that in Jesus' own day.

In fact, when Jesus went to his hometown, a very small town called Nazareth, when he went there to preach, he'd been gone for a few years.

These people knew him, he grew up there.

They didn't want to follow him.

They were kind of indignant that one of their own had become so so popular.

And the only criticism they had for Jesus was that he was just the son of a carpenter.

I mean, think about it.

This was his hometown, this is where he grew up, and there's not one person that can say he owes me 20 bucks, he never paid me back, he's a jerk.

That kid, that kid from across the street, that kid's annoying.

There's no way he's the Messiah.

But no one can say that.

The only thing they can say is he's just a carpenter's son, he's not from a very wealthy family.

That's that's interesting to me.

When I was in college, I had a lot of classes, and I was always amazed how in the classes I took, even though it might be about communication or business, somehow the concept of God would always get brought up, and there was a great effort made to convince me and many other people that God was not real.

And so I had a lot of arguments in college with professors that, you know, didn't go well because they were professors with PhDs and I was 18.

It was just me basically going, uh-uh, you're wrong, uh, and being obstinate.

But, you know, I'm good at that.

So I would I would take these classes, I would get in these arguments.

And I remember that there was this one quote that I read that blew me away about Jesus.

And it blew me away not only because of what was said, but because of who said it.

I've shared this quote before, but it's it's been a while.

It's a quote by a man named John Stuart Mill, who lived a long time ago.

He's a very influential person in American history.

And John Stuart Mill said this about the life and sayings of Jesus, there is a stamp of personal originality combined with profundity of insight, which must place the prophet of Nazareth, even in the estimation of those who have no belief in his inspiration, in the very first rank of those men of sublime genius.

People had much better vocabulary 200 years ago.

That's basically John Stuart Mill's way of saying, Jesus ranks number one.

Here's what's really interesting about John Stuart Mill.

He was an atheist.

And the reason his name jumped out to me when I read that quote in college is that in my college classes, the very classes that these professors I would have would try to convince me that God wasn't real and I shouldn't believe, we read books by John Stuart Mill, and they just praised his books and said, He's a genius.

This man's a genius, he single-handedly changed the political culture of the world.

John Stuart Mill's this genius, and I'm reading his books, and he uses a lot of big words, so I trust that he is a genius.

Profundity of insight.

I think that just means smart, right?

And I'm sitting here going, hey, so this man that you say is a genius says that Jesus ranks number one in all humanity.

Wouldn't it be so convenient if you could just point to a quote by someone like that if you don't believe in Jesus and say, yeah, Jesus didn't know what he was talking about?

He was full of it, he was he was garbage, he was a hack.

But you can't find that.

That's why every major faith in this world has a need to include Jesus.

In Islam, he's a prophet because you can't discredit him.

The virgin birth of Jesus is in the Quran, by the way.

He's a prophet in Islam, he's a god in the Hindu faith, he's a great teacher in Buddhism because no one can look at Jesus and dismiss him.

You can't do it, but you can stop short of calling him who he is.

See, it's only Jesus.

Only Jesus could do that.

And see, not only is Jesus the one qualified because he's the one who solved sin, he's the one that backed up living this perfect life with the way he lived life, with the way he cared about people, with his compassion.

But see, only Jesus has the authority to solve the problem.

He's the only one with the authority.

Jesus said this in John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

I tell you the truth.

Everyone who sins is a slave of sin.

A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever.

So if the son sets you free, you're truly free.

What Jesus is saying is, look, there are some things that can only be solved by someone with authority.

Like we recognize that, right?

There's some issues that can't be solved by just anyone.

We have to take it to someone who actually has the authority to get it done.

Jesus claims to be that authority.

He says, Look, I'm I'm divine.

I'm the Son of God.

And so if I say you're free, you're free.

If I say you're healed, you're healed.

If I say your sins are forgiven, your sins are forgiven.

Because I have that authority.

Jesus made claims like that all the time in John 14, 6.

Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one can come to the Father except through me.

And sometimes our culture has a very difficult time looking at statements like that and going, man, that seems that seems pretty intense.

That's kind of exclusive.

Right?

The beauty is Jesus was probably the most inclusive person that you can imagine.

He brought so many people into relationship with him that religion said deserved to be on the outside.

But make no mistake, Jesus made claims of exclusivity.

He said, I am the way, not a way.

He said, I am the life.

He said, I'm the one who has the authority to do what you need to do.

It was always Jesus.

It could only be Jesus.

But the sad reality of the story is that so many people missed Jesus when he came.

And so many people miss Jesus still.

Sometimes when I read the four books in the Bible, the gospels that tell us the story of Jesus, I get really angry at the Pharisees.

But then sometimes, whenever I read those stories, I get kind of heartbroken about the Pharisees as well.

If you're not familiar with the story, the Pharisees were the religious leaders of the day.

They were the ones that were supposed to be the experts when it came to God, when it came to the scriptures, and they're the ones that oppose Jesus at every turn.

That's why the spirit of religion is so powerful and dangerous.

It's religion that attacks God as much as anything else.

That's why we have to fight so hard to make sure our relationship with God never becomes a religion.

A religion is less than a relationship.

And so these men they oppose God, and oftentimes I get frustrated with them, but then I look at them sometimes and I go, How did you miss him?

My heart breaks for them because Jesus should have been the one they saw coming from like a mile away.

They should have been the first to go, the Messiah is here, he's here.

It shouldn't have been fishermen and everyday people who recognized Jesus standing in front of them.

It should have been the Pharisees.

They should have been the first ones lining up to shake his hand.

And I look at them sometimes and I go, How did they miss it?

Like, do you remember before there was GPS?

And maybe before things like, like, you know, I used to go to mapquest.com or Google Maps and print off directions.

When you would go somewhere and you would just have to describe to someone over the phone, if someone was coming to visit you, maybe, how to get to where you were.

You probably remember being on the other end of those conversations where you're saying, okay, tell me how to get to your house, tell me how to get where I'm going.

People say, okay, you're going to take this road.

Are you familiar with that road?

Yes, I am.

Okay.

You know that one gas station there?

Yep, okay, turn left there.

And they'd give you landmarks, right?

And you try to give people landmarks that they would understand.

I remember having lived here for about six months.

We lived in Ackworth and just moved here.

And I had to go somewhere that was in downtown Marietta.

And I was not familiar with downtown Marietta.

Uh I had to go take my ACTs.

I'll never forget it.

And uh and so I'm I'm on my way down there, but I I got directions from someone who knew where I was going.

And they said, Okay, you're gonna take this road.

I knew that road.

And they said, You're gonna get to the big chicken.

And I said, What's that?

And they were like, You'll know it when you see it.

And I was actually nervous.

I was kind of like, hey, I I would like some more clear directions than just a big chicken.

Please give me something I can really, you know, count on, something that I don't want to miss the big chicken.

I was really worried about missing the big chicken.

And then I saw the big chicken.

And if you're not from Georgia and you've never been to Marietta, just Google big chicken.

Because when you see the big chicken, you go, oh, okay.

I'm gonna guess that's the big chicken.

And if someone tells me later, oh, that was the little chicken, then I don't even want to know what a big chicken would be.

And so I saw the big chicken and I was good.

Like, like Jesus, he should have been as obvious to the Pharisees as the big chicken.

Like it should have been so clear because he fulfills prophecy after prophecy.

He makes all these Old Testament stories come to life in a new way.

You see Passover, you see Abraham and Isaac.

But there were hundreds of prophecies about Jesus.

And he fulfilled every single one of them.

It should have been that the Pharisees were like, hey, there's this guy healing people, raising people back to life.

And they're like, oh, well, um, what family is he from?

Oh, he's from the line of David.

Oh, well, that's kind of a big deal.

Because all the prophecies about the Messiah were that he would be from the line of David, this king from their past.

And well, just out of curiosity, anyone know where he was born?

Oh, he was born in Bethlehem.

Oh, what did the scriptures say about the Messiah, where he'll be born?

He'll be born in Bethlehem.

Oh, okay.

So he's raising people from the dead, he's healing diseases, he's from Bethlehem, and he uh he's from the line of David.

I wonder who this guy could be.

That should have been how simple it was, but but it wasn't, and I I I often wonder why.

If it was always Jesus, if it could only be Jesus, why why did so many people miss him?

And I've got one word for you.

It begins with a C.

It's casserole.

Okay?

I know this is a cheesy analogy, but do you get that?

Cheesy?

You gonna see what I did there?

Oh yeah.

That's the lowest form of comedy that there is.

See, the reason the Pharisees missed Jesus, the reason that many people miss Jesus, is because they they took God's plan.

And then they looked at their plan and their desires and their preferences, and they mixed the two together and they created something that wasn't ever what God intended.

When we try to take God's plan and mix it with our own, when we try to take God's plan and we make it fit our own, we we miss God's plan.

That's what happened with the Pharisees.

See, even though even though scriptures like Isaiah were so clear that the the Messiah would be a person who would give his life as a sacrifice, who would suffer, the Pharisees couldn't handle that.

They couldn't grasp that because what they desired more than anything else was political freedom and political power.

They wanted Israel to be restored as a powerful nation.

They were tired of Rome, they were tired of foreign oppressors, and so in their mind, the Messiah would be a conqueror, not a sacrifice.

The ironic thing is that Jesus conquered death and the power of sin, an enemy far greater than some government, but but they couldn't see it because it didn't match what they wanted.

And so they took God's plan and they mixed it with their own plans and their own preferences, and they tried to blend that together, and all they did was muddy God's plan.

To the point that when God's plan was standing in front of them, when they were face to face with God Himself, they couldn't even recognize him.

See, when we take our own plans and we elevate them to the level of God's plan, because that's really what they did.

That's what we all have a tendency to do.

That's what I did.

When we do that, we just miss God's plan.

We miss what God has for us because we're so focused on what we would prefer God to do.

And I have learned that the hard way so many times in my life.

I've only been in this role for a little over three years.

And and so every day is learning on the job, and I think it'll always be like that.

But but every once in a while I'll have a chance to talk to someone else who does this, who's a pastor.

And sometimes I even get asked questions like, hey, what advice do you have?

And I always say the same thing.

This is all I've learned so far.

Don't settle for a good idea when you can hear from God.

Because I have this tendency to settle for my own ideas all the time.

I take my own plans, my own preferences, and I elevate them.

And I want them to happen so badly.

I want to see my plan come to fruition so badly that when God shows up and he reveals his plan, I have this tendency to say, that's nice, God, but can we take that?

And can we can we blend it in with what I want?

And can we bake that and make a nice casserole out of it and enjoy that together?

And I just I mess it up.

I've learned that my ideas are not that good, but God's ideas are.

And when I live my life in pursuit of my own ideas being fulfilled, I fall short of experiencing what God has for me.

And we all do that.

We all have a tendency to do that.

Even the most godly people can do that.

You look at someone like John the Baptist, for example.

John the Baptist was Jesus' cousin, he baptized Jesus, he was the prophet that God sent to prepare the way for Jesus, and for a while, John the Baptist was a big deal.

There was no name more famous in all of Israel than John the Baptist before Jesus showed up.

But then Jesus showed up.

So in John chapter 3, verse 26, we read that John's disciples came to him and said, Rabbi, the man you met on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you identified as the Messiah, is also baptizing people.

John 3:26

They're like, that's kind of our thing.

And everybody's going to him instead of us.

And John replied, No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven.

You yourselves know how plainly I told you, I'm not the Messiah.

I'm only here to prepare the way for him.

It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the bridegroom's friend is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows.

Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success.

He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.

See, in that moment, it's it's John's disciples who are struggling, because their ideas, their plans, what they thought was going to happen, how big of a role they were going to play wasn't matching up with what was happening.

And they go to John and he's like, look, it's it's God's plan.

Just surrender to it, enjoy it, witness it.

But then later on, John himself had doubts.

Because he got thrown in prison and he was facing execution, and as John envisioned Jesus, the Messiah coming, he probably didn't think it would end poorly for him.

He probably thought, like the rest of the disciples, that, hey, Jesus is gonna clean house, he's gonna set up his own shop, and we're gonna be in really, really important positions in a very literal earthly sense.

Forgetting again that Jesus came to be a sacrifice.

And so in Luke 7, it says that John's two disciples found Jesus and said, John the Baptist has sent us to ask, are you the Messiah we've been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?

At that very time, Jesus cured many people of their diseases, illnesses, and evil spirits, and he restored sight to many.

Who are blind, and then he told John's disciples, Go back to John and tell them what you have seen and heard.

The blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the good news is being preached to the poor.

And he added, God blesses those who do not fall away because of me.

So Jesus answers John's disciples when they say, Are you the one we've been expecting?

by saying, Essentially, yes and no.

I am the one, but I'm not the one you've been expecting.

My plan, my way is not what you've been expecting.

It's not going to match the way you thought things were going to go.

But if you'll trust me, it's better.

There's this great tendency in the church to be fearful, I believe, of asking people to lay aside what they want most for what God would desire for them.

Because there's this idea that, man, no one's going to do that.

And so instead, what we've got to do is we've got to change the message of Jesus to make it look like, hey, if you want a Lexus, Jesus wants you to have one too.

And so just give your life to him and you'll be blessed.

And here's the crazy thing about it: there are many people who've given their lives to Jesus, who obey Jesus, and they have been incredibly financially blessed because of it in all kinds of different ways.

The people I know in life who are the most successful just so happen to be people who are the most obedient to God.

Because sometimes you take what you want, like Abraham, and you lay it on the altar of God, and he gives it right back to you.

Right?

Sometimes you take your desires for life, your goals, your ambitions, and you put it on the altar of God and you say, God, I will sacrifice this if you ask me to, and God says nope, take it back, it's gonna be even greater than you imagined.

But sometimes it's like John the Baptist.

Sometimes you take what you're expecting and you lay it on the altar and you find out that God actually has very different plans than what you maybe had.

And I don't ever want to tell a story that isn't true.

I have to ask myself, would I would I lay my Isaac on that altar?

Because I have dreams, I have hopes, I have aspirations.

There's things I want to see happen in this church.

There's things that I want to accomplish, whatever that means.

But I have to ask myself, God, is this what I want?

Or is it what you want?

Am I willing to lay down what I want on the altar and say, God, I'm not gonna make a Jesus casserole?

Just, I want you, I want Jesus.

So look, take all my ingredients, take all the stuff that I bring to the table, and if you want to give it back, great.

If not, take it.

I will accept what you want, I will trust what you want, I will believe that what you want is greater than what I want, even if I don't understand it.

Will I do that?

Or will I be like the Pharisees who hold so tightly to what they desire that they miss God standing right in front of them?

See, Jesus is the Messiah, He's the King.

And He loves you.

He loves you, but understand that He will ask for everything.

Everything.

It's really hard for me to understand why God would want all of me.

There's so much of me that I don't want to be part of me.

But God asks for everything.

He's the Lord, He's the Messiah, He's the King of Kings, He's the way, He's the truth, He's the life.

I don't care how unpopular that is to say, He's the one.

And He said it, not me.

So I'm just repeating what He said.

And if someone has an issue with that, they can take it up with Him.

I think He backs it up well.

But I I have to look at my life like we all do.

And I have to ask myself the hard question: Am I willing?

Am I willing to lay aside everything and put it at His feet and say, What do you want?

And I think about what would happen.

If a whole church, a whole family of people in a community had the attitude of John the Baptist, who said, Look, if in order for Jesus to increase, I need to decrease?

If in order for Jesus to be seen and for his kingdom to grow, my own little mini kingdom needs to shrink, so be it.

Whatever is necessary for the most important thing in this world, for the message of Jesus to grow and for people to come connected to him and for people to come to life, like what we saw earlier today, for people to say, look, I was at death's door, I had nothing to live for, but I've given my life to Jesus, and because of Jesus, death is not what defines my life, but life itself.

That's more important than anything that I could create in this world.

And am I willing to lay aside what I want for what he wants?

I know this is challenging.

But that's the thing about Jesus.

That's the thing about Christ.

He is challenging.

See, when people hung out with Jesus, it wasn't like they just walked away and went, man, he's such a cool guy.

When people hung out with Jesus, they had a life crisis.

Like every time.

Jesus would come in for someone's dinner party and all of a sudden they're reconsidering what their life is all about.

They just wanted to have dinner.

Right?

And that's because when you're in the presence of Jesus and you understand what he's actually asking for.

All of you.

That's kind of a crisis.

But I believe there is not one person in this world more powerful than the person who is fully surrendered to the will of God.

Not one person.

Psalm 37, 4 says, Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart's desires.

I heard this taught when I was a young kid.

I've always loved this verse, because it can really be taken one of two ways.

Delight in the Lord, give your whole life to him, and he will either give you your heart's desires in the sense that whatever you're currently desiring, he'll make it happen.

Or he will give you your heart's desires in the sense that he will put desires on your heart that you never had before you knew him.

And those desires will overtake whatever desires you've had before.

I know every single one of us in this room, whether we're in our 70s or our 20s, has hopes, has dreams.

Please understand that God has hopes and dreams for you.

And I believe with all conviction that his hopes and dreams, his hopes and dreams for you are better than your hopes and dreams for yourself.

Maybe you're here this morning and you've never surrendered to Jesus at all.

And if that's the case, I'm partially sorry that the message this morning is so like all or nothing.

Maybe it would have been wiser to be like, no, no, just take a little nibble, you know.

Come, come, come close.

You know, I get that, but at the same time, I love it when things are just spelled out like it is at the forefront.

If you've never given your life to Jesus, here's basically what's happening.

Jesus wants all of you.

He's given all of himself for you, by the way.

He wants all of you.

He died for you.

He's asking that you would commit your entire life to him, your hopes, your dreams, your future, everything.

You would give it all to him, and you would lay it at his feet, and you would say, Do with it what you will.

And he promises that if you do that, he will love you, he will walk with you.

You will never be asked to do something that he has not already done.

And there will be a blessing for you in life that will exceed anything that you can imagine.

There will be a blessing for you in the life to come that will exceed anything we can imagine on this earth.

That's what he promises.

It's a big promise.

But he asks for everything.

Maybe you're here this morning and you've given your life to Jesus, but you're like most of us, like I am most days, where you've given your life to Jesus, but then, you know, over time you kind of like take a few pieces back.

You're like, hey, I just need my career for a few years.

And then it's yours.

You know, I give you everything, Jesus, but let me hold on to this one thing for a while.

Let me, you know, make a casserole with you.

What do you think, Jesus?

You in the mood for a casserole?

You want to blend your plan and my plan together and see what comes out of the oven?

And he's like, nope.

I'm not a big fan of casseroles.

He wasn't from the South.

I'm sorry.

I don't know if they have casseroles in Israel.

I honestly didn't do the research.

So I apologize.

All analogies break down at some point.

This is that point.

But he would look at you and say, surrender it.

Your marriage, surrender it.

To me.

Give it to me.

Your relationship with your kids, give it to me.

Maybe you're here this morning and you feel like the good parts of your life are over, that you've missed your chance, that you can't be effective anymore because you've already had those years and maybe you wasted them.

No.

You're kidding me?

Jesus changed the world in three years.

You probably got three years left.

If you give those three years to him, you start today and you say, My life is for Christ.

He's my king, he's my messiah.

I lay it all down at his feet.

I trust him with everything.

I'm not going to walk out of these doors before I have made sure that he understands that I am all in with him.

There is no person in this world more powerful than the person fully surrendered to God.

To Christ, to the Messiah.

So I encourage you today, stop making casseroles.

And just accept the purity and the beauty of Jesus as he is.

And to give him everything he asks for.

And watch what happens.

Please pray with me.

Jesus, thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Lord, for your love.

Thank you so much, Lord, for your plans and your will.

That you actually have dreams and hopes for our lives.

God, I'm so grateful that when it comes to this story, this good news, the gospel that we're part of, that you didn't just, Lord, you didn't just send some type of prophet.

You didn't just send someone on your behalf, that you actually came in person.

That you came for us yourself.

That you gave everything.

That you died on the cross.

Just like Isaiah wrote about centuries before, that you were you were beaten so we could be made whole.

We want to be whole, Lord.

But we want to accept all that you have.

And so, God, just like you gave everything to us, help us be brave enough in this place right now, in our hearts, as we worship, as we walk out these doors to say to you, I give it all to you.

Take it.

I'm not going to mix your plan and my plan together and pretend like I'm going to come out with something better than if I would just accept your plan.

I'm not going to do that anymore, Lord.

I want your plan, I want your will, and I want it in its purest form possible.

We ask all this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.