Why Jesus Came

Hey everybody, it is great to see you, whether you're here in the room or joining us online.

I'm honored to have you along for the ride.

Um before we get going today, I want to remind you that Grant, one of our lovable youth pastors, and I have launched the second season of our weekly podcast.

We call it the after sermon because it is after the sermon.

Thank you.

And in the podcast, each week we take about 20 minutes, and he asks me questions about the talk from Sunday.

And here's what's so interesting I've had more than a few of you come up to me, like Costco, Starbucks, DW, and you say, I don't know how to tell you this, but I actually kind of like it better than the sermon.

I'm still not sure how I feel about that, but um, I guess you should check it out for yourself.

You can find it on both Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

And if you don't know what that means, reach out to either a young person or call us at the office and we'll help you out.

So, anyway, to begin our time together today, I want to sh ask you a question that might sound a little strange.

The question goes like this Have you ever noticed how easy it is to see the people we love mainly in terms of what they do for us?

Okay, here's what I mean.

Like if you're married, think about how this shows up between you and your spouse.

You love them, but when life gets busy, if you're honest, your conversations start to sound a little bit like a staff meeting.

Am I the only one?

Right?

Like you start thinking, like, hey, did you get the groceries?

Who's picking up the kids?

I thought you were doing that.

I mean, you share life with this person, but somewhere between work, dinner, and the next practice, it's easy to stop asking how they're doing and focus instead on what they need to do for you.

And if you have teenagers, you've likely experienced the other side of this phenomenon.

I mean, you can have decades of life experience and thoughts you'd love to share with your beloved offspring.

But when you pick them up from soccer practice, the only thing they ever seem to ask you is, hey, can we stop for food on the way home?

And you're thinking, hey, maybe, but you know that I'm more than an Uber driver with a debit card, right?

Just so we're clear.

Yeah, and I know, you know, giving rides and buying dinner are part of loving your family.

The problem, well, I think the problem comes when what someone does for us becomes all we see when we look at them.

And it happens like subconsciously.

And I bring this up because I wonder if sometimes we do that same thing with Jesus.

Like we know he forgives us and he comforts us, and we ask for his help when we're afraid or when life gets complicated, and we should.

But see, it's possible to appreciate what Jesus offers us while missing the significance of who he is.

And I think this is true, especially if the messages we've heard over the years have emphasized his help in our lives more than our more than his authority in our lives.

And that's the imbalance I introduced last week with the soundboard illustration.

If you were here, remember, I won't show you the whole thing again, it's too long.

But yeah, if you weren't with us, I played a video that introduced a song, and it introduced it like one instrument at a time.

And all the parts we heard belonged to the song, but the parts we heard depended on which of the faders was turned up and which was turned down.

And I made the argument that similarly for many of us, the idea that Jesus is savior has come through loud and clear in the mix of our faith, while the idea that Jesus is Lord was much harder to hear.

And so, kind of my heart in this series, I want to get us to hear the whole song again, the whole message of who Jesus is.

His ability to forgive and uh it matters deeply, but the one who forgives us is also the one that we are intended to follow.

And that's why we spent some time last week exploring the word Christ, right?

I mean, we said it generally means anointed one, but when the New Testament writers use it to describe Jesus, they're identifying him as God's promised king.

In fact, God's final king.

And so we said, for Jesus, Christ is a title.

You say Jesus Christ, it's Jesus the King.

Christ is not his last name.

And Jesus the King, that idea matters because a king does more than simply offer to help his subjects.

He has the authority to direct them.

And so Jesus invites us to bring him our needs, but he also invites us to trust his leadership in our life, to let him shape our priorities and challenge our decisions and change where we're headed.

And that brings me to the question I want you to wrestle with today, if you're a follower of Jesus.

If you're not yet, you're kicking the tires.

You get to pass on this, but if you're a follower of Jesus, this is the question I'd love you to wrestle down.

Am I asking Jesus to join my plans or accepting his invitation to join his plans?

And here's the thing: these two approaches can look surprisingly similar on a Sunday morning.

I mean, you can pray and sing and know your way around the Bible with either mindset.

The difference shows up when following Jesus takes you in a direction you wouldn't have chosen.

When his teaching challenges something you want to do, or his teaching asks you to do something you'd rather avoid.

That's when the question, this question, becomes personal.

Like, will I follow Jesus even when his direction conflicts with what I want?

And see, if we're going to take that step, we need to trust more than his ability to help us.

We need to trust that his leadership is good and worth following.

And so, what can give us that confidence?

Well, I think we can begin to understand why we can trust Jesus to lead us when we understand why he came.

And here's what I mean.

We have those four accounts of his life in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

And if you've been around church, you know the stories of the miracles, you've heard the teachings, you know about the cross and the empty tomb.

But the question I want to ask is like, what holds it all together?

What's the overarching narrative in Jesus' life?

And an early Jesus follower named Mark begins his account of Jesus' public ministry with an announcement that I would argue helps us make sense of everything that follows, sort of the framework for everything Jesus came to do.

Mark says this.

He says, After John the Baptist was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, that's a region in northern Israel, proclaiming the good news of God.

And the time has come, he said, the kingdom of God has come near.

And then look at this repent and believe the good news.

And notice that Jesus is announcing the good news before his crucifixion and resurrection.

Like those events are still years away, but he's already telling people what God is doing.

He says, the kingdom of God has come near.

In other words, God is keeping his promises.

Through Jesus, he's bringing his rule and his reign into people's lives.

That's what kingdom means in this context.

Life lived under the authority of the king.

And so Jesus' announcement, if you think about it, it reaches way beyond where people go when they die.

He's inviting them to respond now, like to trust him and follow him and begin living under his leadership now.

But notice something else.

Notice what's happening when he makes this announcement.

Mark writes, after John the Baptist was put in prison, it's almost like the man who prepared the way for Jesus is behind bars.

And so the disciples or the guys who are listening to this are thinking, wait a minute, but if John prepared the way and he's behind bars and Rome is still in power and people are still suffering, and if God's kingdom has come near, why does so much still seem so wrong?

It's like Mark places these realities side by side.

The world is still broken, the fires of chaos are still burning all around, and the king has arrived.

His presence doesn't make every trouble disappear.

It means that God is at work in the middle of it.

In other words, the presence of trouble doesn't mean the absence of the king.

Jesus, in his ministry, has begun something that will one day be brought to completion.

But for now, for the first followers of Jesus and for us today, we're still waiting for everything to be made right.

But we don't have to wait to begin living under his leadership.

That's why his announcement comes with an invitation.

He says, repent and believe the good news.

In other words, God is doing something and Jesus invites his listeners to respond.

And I know when we hear the word repent, especially if you've been around church, you may think Jesus is asking us to feel guilty about what we've done.

And repentance certainly includes recognizing what's wrong, but it also calls us to do something with that recognition, to turn away from sin and towards God.

To let him challenge the way we think so that he can change the way we live.

Let me give you an example.

Like, think about realizing that you've missed a turn when driving.

And I know if you've just started driving in the last five years, you're like, why would you do that?

The GPS, you follow the screen, right?

I know back in the day we had maps, it was like you know, you had to dodge the dinosaurs, it was terrible.

But anyway, imagine that you've missed a turn when driving.

You could admit it, and you probably can even explain how it happened.

And even feel frustrated with yourself.

But none of those things changes where the car is headed.

At some point, you have to change direction.

And the same is true when Jesus challenges the way we're living.

We can agree that resentment is hurting us, or that we've been dishonest, or that money has become far too important in our lives.

We can admit it and keep going the same way.

Repentance means turning towards God.

And it begins with a willingness to say, Jesus, I've been insisting on my way.

Help me to follow yours.

And again, if we're going to do that, it takes trust because it means we're letting go of a familiar way of living before we know exactly what following Jesus will require.

And that's why I think Jesus brings up repentance and belief together.

He says, repent and believe the good news.

He invites us to change direction because we have come to trust the good news that the king has come near, and now we can entrust our lives to him.

We can begin living under his leadership and his lordship now, even as we wait for the day everything will be made right.

And here's what's so fun.

Mark records what the response looks like to turn and to redirect.

In fact, in the very next scene, Jesus approaches some guys who are fishing and invites them to follow him.

And they leave their nets and go with him.

It's like trust is a step that they actually take to follow Jesus.

And of course, for us, that step may begin, uh may begin in a relationship.

Like, think about this.

Suppose someone has hurt you and you've been replaying the conversation and rehearsing what you should have said and imagining the moment when you finally put that person in their place.

Resentment has become so familiar that you hardly notice how much of your day it occupies.

And then one morning over a cup of coffee, you read Jesus' instruction to love your enemies.

And suddenly, something you've heard your whole life has become very much about this situation, this person, this hurt.

You may not know how to let go of the resentment yet, but you can begin by letting Jesus challenge the hold that it has on you.

Repentance for in that situation might start with an honest prayer, something like, Jesus, I don't want to forgive this person.

But I don't want resentment to keep ruining my life either.

So help me take a step towards your way.

And of course, that doesn't erase accountability, and it doesn't require you to trust someone who remains unsafe.

It simply means you're beginning to giving up revenge as a thing that determines your next move.

You're letting Jesus lead you.

That's how the announcement of a kingdom reaches into an ordinary life.

It changes what you do with the hurt you carry and how you treat the person who caused the hurt.

And of course, relational tensions are just one place where his leadership changes how we live.

I mean, Jesus spends much of his ministry teaching people what life under his leadership in his kingdom looks like.

That's actually what the Sermon on the Mount is all about.

Jesus shows us how trusting God changes the way we handle things like anger and resentment and relationships and money and uncertainty.

His leadership, his kingdom is intended to reach into every decision we make every day.

Like, what do we do when someone hurts us?

How do we respond when we're afraid we won't have enough?

I mean, that is a real thing for so many people in our world.

And it actually, um, that second question, what do we do when we don't feel like we have enough, brings us to Jesus' teaching about worry, and it's so revolutionary.

Jesus talks about our need for food and clothing.

He explains what should guide our lives even when those needs feel urgent.

Right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, he says this.

He says, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Like all the stuff that you're worrying about, I'm telling you, seek his kingdom first, and everything else will fall into place.

And to be clear, Jesus takes people's concerns seriously.

Like he assures his listeners that their father knows what they need.

That's the foundation of his invitation.

They can put his kingdom first because they can trust his care.

But that trust becomes real in the decisions they make.

Will they follow his direction even when they're worried about having enough?

And I think we face that same question.

Because it's easy to say God comes first in my life when following him fits comfortably into our plans, right?

Trust gets tested when honesty could cost us money, or generosity means changing how we spend our resources.

Like, will we still do what he asks when we can't guarantee how things will turn out?

Jesus, in this sermon, he isn't promising that faithful people will never struggle financially.

He's inviting us to trust our Heavenly Father enough to do what's right, even when fear tells us we can't afford to.

That's why Jesus tells us to seek his kingdom and his righteousness.

We're learning to let what matters to God shape our decisions.

Instead of asking only, what will this cost me?

We ask a much better question.

We start asking, what would God have me do in this situation?

And here's just a few examples to show you what I mean.

Like suppose a customer, you have a business and a customer pays you twice and nobody's noticed, like you know, the things got crossed, and you have more money than you should have.

Returning the money will cost you an advantage you could probably keep.

But that money was never yours in the first place.

And following Jesus means returning it even if nobody would ever know.

Or think about this: how you would define a successful week?

Is a successful week for you when you get ahead, whatever the cost, or is it when you choose to act with integrity?

Or how about how about you know how you raise your kids?

I mean, if you want them, we you want them to succeed and to have opportunities they desire, but what happens when doing what God wants could cost them something that they want?

Like maybe telling the truth could cost them a spot on the team.

Maybe including a lonely classmate could make things awkward with their friends.

Like, what do we encourage them to do then?

Our response teaches them what we believe matters most.

We can ask Jesus to help our children get ahead, but are we willing to let Him shape what we're encouraging them to pursue?

And following Jesus, I would argue it changes what we celebrate too.

We we notice the courage it took to tell the truth, and we affirm the kindness that went unnoticed by everyone else.

I mean, we want our children to learn that success includes using what they have for someone else's good.

These are everyday choices behind the line Jesus taught his followers to pray that goes, Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

When we pray that, we're asking for God's will to shape what happens in our homes and our workplaces, including the decisions we'd prefer to keep under our own control.

We're basically saying, God, help me want what you want.

Show me where I'm resisting your direction and help me trust you enough to follow you.

Like we still bring him our needs and we still ask for help.

Putting his kingdom first doesn't mean our concerns no longer matter.

It means we bring them to a heavenly father whose care we can trust and whose direction we're willing to receive.

And so Jesus announces the kingdom.

And his teaching shows us what life under his leadership looks like.

But he also does things that allow people to see what he's talking about, like in living color.

You know the stories, he literally feeds hungry crowds and he heals people who are suffering and he restores other people who've been sort of pushed aside in society.

These are acts of compassion, and they belong to the same story in his account of Jesus' life.

A man named John helps us see the connection between Jesus' miracles and what he's trying to tell us because he calls Jesus' miracles signs.

Some of you remember we did a series on the seven miracles of John.

Because as it turns out, these miracles meet real needs, but they also reveal what kind of king has come near.

Jesus is like, you want to know what I'm like?

Let me show you.

And so John even tells us why he chose to include the signs that he did.

They weren't random.

He says this at the end.

He says, Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book, but he says, These are written that you may believe, that you may trust that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

It's like John tells us what he wants us to see.

These signs reveal Jesus as God's anointed king.

And recognizing him is an invitation to trust him.

But if we're being honest, it's possible to witness his power and still misunderstand the purpose.

That's exactly what happens when Jesus feeds the 5,000.

I mean, the crowd is hungry, Jesus feeds them, and then the crowd decides they want to make Jesus king by force, but not the sort of king he came to be.

They've seen what he can provide, they've seen his power, and they want to put that power to work for their purposes.

And some of you know the story: Jesus withdraws.

Like they want a king who will carry out their plans, but Jesus has come to invite them into his plans.

And I can understand that appeal.

I mean, it's easy to be enthusiastic about Jesus when I think he's going to give me the future I want.

The question is whether I'll follow him when he leads me towards something I hadn't planned.

And that's actually something I've had to rustle down in my life.

Some of you know my story.

I mean, growing up, my plans, I was going to be a doctor.

And so I went and earned my biology degree.

Um, I got accepted into medical school, and I could finally see the future I'd been working towards.

Like I could see it coming into view.

Medicine was a way I could help people, which I wanted to do, and secure some of my hopes and dreams at the same time.

But then one day I was sitting in church, so be careful when you're in church, right?

I'm just telling you, right?

I'm in church listening to a pastor I had heard countless times before.

This was not a guest speaker with a special thing going on.

I knew this guy, right?

But I'm sitting there listening to a guy I'd heard countless times before when seemingly out of nowhere, I had this overwhelming sense that I was supposed to become a pastor.

And I was stunned because I don't know where that idea came from.

I had never had that thought before in my life.

I had a biology degree, friends, right?

I didn't know what to do, and so I reached out to the pastor who'd been speaking, and though we'd never met one-on-one, he invited me to lunch the next day.

And I explained what had happened, and I asked him what I should do.

And here's what he said.

You're gonna love this.

He said, he leaned across the desk, he says, Listen, if you can do anything else with your life, do it.

And I remember thinking, what a strange way to recruit pastors.

Like this is really weird.

But but anyway, I deferred my admission to medical school uh to try to wrestle this down.

I actually deferred it twice while I was just trying to figure out what to do with this thing, and eventually I went to med school for two weeks.

So if you have a thing, I don't know anything about it, okay?

I can't help you.

But anyway, after paying my first semester's tuition, I became convinced that Jesus was asking.

Me to change direction.

I wanted certainty about my future.

But what I had was a growing conviction that I needed to follow him even without that certainty.

Medicine would have been a great way to serve people.

But I had to decide whether I was willing to let Jesus change my plans.

And for me, that decision involved years of struggling to figure out what I was going to do.

But I think a lot of times the stories of obedience in this way, they're a lot less dramatic because many of the next steps Jesus wants us to take are already clear in his teaching.

Right?

Like we know that he calls us to forgive.

And we know that he wants us to tell the truth and love our neighbors.

So the question becomes: will we trust him enough to do what he asks us to do, even when we can't predict the outcome or know that it could cost us something?

I mean, that level of confidence takes more than determination.

It takes real trust in the one we're following.

And so if you say, well, I don't know, I mean, if it's big enough, like how in the world do I ever trust Jesus that much?

And I would argue that at the cross we see why we can trust him fully.

The king who invites us to follow him is willing to give his life for us.

And so we never have to wonder if he is for us.

I mean, Jesus bears our sins on the cross and opens the way for us to be reconciled to God.

That's how far he's willing to go to bring us back to him.

And so when Jesus asks us to trust him with something costly, we can remember what he has already given for us.

We may not understand where he's leading, but the cross shows us his heart.

And then, of course, God raised Jesus from the dead.

And so the crucified king is alive again.

The one who gave his life for us has overcome death and invites us to share in his life.

And all of a sudden, all of the stories and teachings and miracles, we can start to see how it all fits together.

His teaching shows us how to live under his leadership.

His signs reveal his power, his compassion, and his heart, and his cross and resurrection accomplish our rescue and open the way for us to belong to his kingdom.

Through it all, God is bringing his saving reign into this world through King Jesus.

And as awesome as that is, there's even more because the risen King invites his followers to take part in that mission here and now.

And here's what I mean.

After the resurrection, Jesus meets his disciples on a mountain near the Sea of Galilee.

And he's about to give them their marching orders, but first he tells them why they can go with such confidence.

He says to them, Listen, guys, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore, he says, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

I'm your king, and I want you to go out and grow my kingdom.

Jesus gives them a mission that reaches far beyond their familiar world to help people from every nation become his disciples.

And of course, a disciple is someone who's learning to follow Jesus.

He says, baptize them, and because baptism identifies us with him and with his people.

And as we learn what he's taught, we have the opportunity to put it into practice.

That's why Jesus says to teach people to obey everything he's commanded.

He wants his teaching to shape how we actually live.

I mean, we can understand what he says about forgiveness and still hold a grudge.

We can explain his teaching about generosity and keep postponing the moment when we actually become generous.

I mean, following Jesus means learning to act on what we believe.

And the good news is that Jesus has promised to help us do just that.

He told his followers right after this, he says, And surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age.

It's like Jesus sends his followers into the world with the promise that he will be with them.

They are not alone.

And they won't know everything that lies ahead, but they do know who they're following, and they do know ultimately where the story is headed.

There's an early Christian leader named Paul who describes that future that was celebrated by early Christians in a letter.

He said it this way: He writes that there will be one day when at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord.

He's the King.

He's the one to whom every knee will bow, to the glory of God the Father.

In other words, one day, Paul says, the authority of Jesus will be unmistakable.

The king we follow now will be acknowledged by everyone.

But on the back end of that, he would say, but listen, you don't have to wait until then to place your lives under his leadership.

You can trust him with the decisions in front of you today.

And that brings us back to the question we started with.

Am I asking Jesus to join my plans or am I accepting his invitation to join his?

When we ask Jesus to join our plans, it's easy to judge his faithfulness by how these plans turn out.

Like, did I get the opportunity?

Did the relationship improve?

Did he give me the answer I want?

And when things don't work out, we may struggle to trust him.

I mean, we can be honest with him about that, but following Jesus gives us a question to ask while we wait on the answers to our prayers.

The question is, what would faithfulness to God look like here?

In this situation, we may want our circumstances to change, but perhaps while we wait, there's a truth we need to tell, a person we need to love, or a responsibility we need to accept.

In other words, we don't have to understand everything that's happening to take a faithful next step today.

And so here's one way to take that next step this week.

I challenge you, spend some time reading the Sermon on the Mount.

It's found in Matthew, the first book of the New Testament, chapters five through seven.

Take it a little at a time and look for a place, just one place, where something that Jesus teaches challenges your usual response.

Like something you can practice in the context of a relationship or a decision you need to make or a conversation you know is coming.

Not ten things, just one.

And then ask, what would change here if I trusted Jesus enough to do what he says?

And be specific enough that you'll know whether you've acted on it.

Like, who specifically do you need to call?

What specifically needs to change?

And who could help you follow through?

This isn't about earning God's love through, you know, a week of better behavior.

Jesus has already shown us his love.

We're learning to trust that love enough to let him lead.

And if you're here and you're still figuring out what you believe, you're welcome to read along too.

Just listen to Jesus.

Consider what his teaching reveals about him and the life he invites us all to live.

For those of us who do follow him, perhaps one decision has already come to mind for you.

Something you've been asking him to bless, that now maybe you need to take a step back and ask for his direction.

Just take a moment and bring that before him and ask him for the courage to take that next step.

Because he is good.

And he is our king.

And we'll pick it up there next week.

But for now, if you're here in the room, I'd love to invite you to stand and we'll close our time in prayer.

If you'd like to pray with someone before you leave, we have some friends that'll be under the screen to the left.

But let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you that Jesus is not only our Savior, but he's also our King.

Thank you that we can trust His leadership because the cross has shown us His heart, He gave His life for us, rose from the dead, and promises to remain with us as we follow.

So show us where we've been asking Jesus to bless our plans while resisting His direction.

Give us the courage to do what Jesus says even when it costs us something.

And along the way, it's our prayer that your light, the light of your Son, will shine through us as we follow.

For today we thank you and we bless you.

In the matchless name of our Lord, Savior, and King Jesus Christ, we pray.

And everyone said, Amen.

It's been good to be with you, friends.

We'll see you next week.