These are my own rough notes from the following sermon: Meeting the Real Jesus
It’s the poor, the broken, who need Jesus. The people who know they are no better than
the poor, that they have been blessed by their circumstance. They understand the gospel, the importance of
it.
Gospel vs. Religion
Only the violent will receive it. Jesus says, if I am who I say I am, if I am
the Lord of heaven, Son of God. If he is
who he says he is and you accept him into your life it changes EVERYTHING. You don’t ask someone like that to be your
secretary, you don’t accept him into your life like a new pet, and nothing else
changes. He changes everything. Only those who know there will be a violent
upheaval of your life understand Christianity.
A complete change in lifestyle. Christianity
is not comfortable. Christianity is not
a comfy home, a boring routine of work, tv, sleep, etc. This turns some people off to Christianity,
but those of us who know that Jesus came and suffered violently know that Jesus
isn’t asking us to do anything he hasn’t done himself. Jesus gave up his cozy life in heaven and
suffered violently to get to us. This doesn’t
mean that Christianity is only suffering, it means that we must change our
worldly view and completely change our life to follow him.
There is not a better person born that John the Baptist but
he is the least of those in the Kingdom of God.
But John questions if Jesus is the son of God because he is imprisoned and
set to be executed. It doesn’t make
sense to him that he is having to suffer and that Jesus isn’t taking care of
the wicked, so Jesus quotes Isaiah 35:
“Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your
God
will come with vengeance,
with the
recompense of God.
He will come and save you.”
5 Then the
eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6 then shall
the lame man leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
Why does Jesus quote
this? John is troubled because he is
like Elijah, Elijah wanted to know why God didn’t condemn all the evil. Where is the vengeance of God that will save
us? How can you bring blessings without judgment? Jesus is telling John, if God brought vengeance
Jesus would lose everyone. We’re
selfish, we don’t love, we don’t live up to our own standard. Jesus says that God’s vengeance is here, but
it’s coming down on him instead of us. Those
of us who understand this; that we need God’s vengeance to come down on Jesus
instead of us, understand the gospel.
Jesus says the most wicked person in the world, standing in Jesus’
righteousness is more beautiful to God than someone who stands in their own
righteousness. Only the deaf hear and
only the blind see, if you’re the least you become the greatest.
Romans 1:17 - 17 For
in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith,[a] as it is
written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”[b]
Whatever is sucking you dry in life is keeping you from the
gospel:
The
righteous shall live by works.
The righteous
shall live by money.
The righteous
shall live by finding a relationship.
The
righteous shall live by approval.
These are
common things that keep us from understanding the freedom of the Gospel. The righteous live by FAITH. Nothing else.
1 comment:
Thanks for this ... it was an enjoyable and thought provoking read ... again thank you.
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