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- #2 Ready? I’ve got my stuff - and I’m pumped Gerry’s sermon - rediscover Jesus - let me take you on a journey - journey back to Jesus I’m packed and ready - two water bottles - this could take a long time - not the sermon So I’ll show you what I packed for the journey - but first I need to talk about how important rediscovering Jesus is - Let’s look at a few verses.
- #4 The way we view Jesus is of utmost importance. We’ve got a lot of choices, but they kind of boil down to two -
- #5 Is He safe or is He good? Two scenes... Talladega Nights - The Ballad of Ricky Bobby Ricky Bobby is a Nascar champion, and he sits down to dinner with his wife, Carly, his two sons, Walker and Texas Ranger, his father-in-law, Chip, and his racing partner, Cal, and begins to say grace. Addressing his prayer to “dear Lord baby Jesus”, Ricky gives thanks for the bountiful harvest of Dominoes, KFC, and Taco Bell on the table - and for his family and his best friend. He then asks Jesus to use his “baby Jesus powers” to heal Chip’s bad leg. His wife stops him. You know Jesus did grow up. You don’t always have to call him “baby”. I like the Christmas Jesus best and I’m sayin’ grace. When you say grace, you can say it to grown-up Jesus, teenage Jesus, bearded Jesus, or whoever you want...(Then he goes back to his prayer) Dear tiny Jesus, with your golden fleece diapers, with your tiny little balled-up fist. His father-in-law, Chip, yells - He was a man! He had a beard! But Ricky won’t back down - Look, I like the baby Jesus version the best. Do you hear me? Ricky’s friend, Cal, says - I like to picture Jesus in a tuxedo T-shirt, cos it says, like, I wanna be formal, but I’m here to party, too. I like to party, so I like my Jesus to party. Ricky’s son, Walker, says - I like to picture Jesus as a ninja fighting off evil samurai. After they finish their theological discussion, Ricky prays, “Dear eight-pound, six-ounce infant Jesus, don’t even know a word yet, just a little infant so cuddly, still omnipotent, we just thank you..” and he thanks Jesus for his success on the track, and the millions of dollars he’s made in endorsements. We laugh, but it should hurt, because that’s exactly what we do. Whatever Jesus fits with what we like (I like to party, so I like my Jesus to party) Jesus the Personal Savior (Jesus the ticket the Heaven), Jesus the Provider (Jesus the sugar daddy) He’s way beyond that! He’s way beyond safe. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe The Beavers are describing the great lion, Aslan, to the children.  Mr. Beaver says,              \"You’ll understand when you see him.\"             “But shall we see him?” asked Susan.             “Why, Daughter of Eve, that’s what I brought you here for.  I’m to lead you where you shall meet him,” said Mr. Beaver.              “Is – is he a man?” asked Lucy.             “Aslan a man!” said Mr. Beaver sternly.  “Certainly not.  I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea.  Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts?  Aslan is a lion – the Lion, the great Lion.”              “Ooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he – quite safe?  I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”             “That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver; “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”              “Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.              “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you?  Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe.  But he’s good.  He’s the King I tell you.” That’s the choice - safe or good The bottom line is - are we viewing Jesus for who He really is?
- #6 Let’s define some terms. We need to look at two words. The first is Christology. It means the study of Christ - in other words, our view or understanding of Jesus
- #7 The second word is Ecclesiology. Ecclesia means church. This is the study of the church - or our view or understanding of the church.
- #8 Here are some disturbing facts: No. 1 - The world’s ecclesiology determines its christology. In other words, the way the world views the church determines how it views Jesus. That’s scary to me, because most of the church looks very little like the Jesus of the Bible. Most people in the world either look at the church and say, If that’s what Jesus is about, I don’t want anything to do with him - or they like what they know about the real Jesus but don’t see him in the church...so they turn their backs on one of the main ways to learn about him.
- #9 The second fact is that the church’s christology determines its ecclesiology. In other words, how the church views or understands Jesus determines how they view the church and its mission. So...if the view of Jesus is lacking, the view of the church will be lacking...and the world will see that lack. And believe me, it does. We get into the rut of thinking the time we spend on Sunday morning, the time we meet, is who we are. No - it is just when who we are meets to learn about who we are - the church is far more than we normally think - because Jesus is far more than we normally think. I started memorizing the words of Jesus several months ago - but I had to stop after I had about 30 to 40 minutes memorized - I kept thinking, I’m not really following Him - I’m not doing what He’s saying. He’s radical! And He calls on us to live radical lives! That’s why we need to go on this journey back to Jesus. We’ve got an anemic view of Jesus, and we need to rediscover the real thing!
- #10 I told you I’d show you what I brought. ---backpack--- Enough about you - let’s talk about me. The part of Jesus that I have to give is the teacher. I love to teach the big picture themes of the Bible. The forest rather than the trees. I’m going to teach two major truths about Jesus this morning and then talk about how we can apply them to our lives. Since this is a journey back to Jesus, I’m going all the way back to before there was time...because that’s where the foundation is.
- #11 You see, we can’t begin this journey back to Jesus at Matthew, Mark, and Luke - or Romans or Galatians. We have to begin at the beginning - in the gospel of John - “In the beginning was the Word...” and in Ephesians - “Blessed be the God and Father...” and he prays...”that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you...” and in Colossians - “He is the image of the invisible God, the first over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the church, who is the Beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminance.” That’s where you start. Let’s look at how Jesus Himself described the Beginning...
- #12 Let’s read John 17:5&24. Jesus talks about the glory that He had with the Father before the world was and says He wants His followers to experience and see that glory. The Greek word for glory in this passage is doxa, but I don’t think Jesus was praying in Greek. Hebrew (or possibly Aramaic, which was close to Hebrew) would have been the language of His prayer. The Hebrew word for glory is Kabod. There was something about the relationship the Son had with the Father - and with the Holy Spirit that was so special that Jesus came to bring it to us. Something was going on. In order to explain the unexplainable, the early church fathers used a different term...
- #13 perichoresis - to go in and out of each other - to dance in a circle - that was how the kabod, the glory, the relationship among the Trinity was described.
- #14 Read
- #15 Read - These are just a few of the quotes about this dance. There are many more, and they emphasize that all three persons in the Godhead are continually giving to the others. There’s no hierarchy. Within the Kabod, there is only love - for God is Love. And God desired to share that love - but...He knew there was only one way to do it - giving free will to creation - and that meant that He knew creation would fall - so...that’s where the next truth comes into play
- #16 Read Rev. 13:8 & Heb 4:3 - This is why it’s important to go all the way back. Sometimes we think salvation was an afterthought for God. Oh, shoot. They blew it. Now I’m going to have to send Jesus to fix things. No...it was fixed before it was broken and finished before it ever started. Before anyone ever sinned, sin was forgiven. And love was defined...for no greater love has anyone than this...that he lay down his life... Then Jesus brought this truth into space and time when He died on the cross. It was already a reality...but He brought it here.
- #17 We’ve journeyed back...all the way back. Now we need to get practical. How does what we just learned affect our lives? We have two foundational truths. What difference do they make?
- #18 Understanding Jesus as part of the divine dance - the Kabod - built on the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world literally changes everything. If God’s identity is community - trinity - and if that’s what Jesus sacrificed for and came to share - to show us - then it should be one of the foundational building blocks for how we live our lives. Our DNA. It changes the way we look at people. If before anything was made, the Lamb was slain for every person who was ever to be created, when we look at people, we need to see their infinite worth. My experiment in prayer. And THIS is what we should offer as the church of Jesus - an invitation into the eternal dance because what the slain Lamb did is to create a clear path to that dance. That’s a little different than the typical come to Jesus and then be forced to go to church the rest of your life. But what if the times we meet as a church are so filled with Kabod, with the Kingdom, with the realm of the eternal?
- #19 This also affects the way we look at time, because we start seeing the eternal. I read recently that we keep ourselves from living in peace because we take too many future trips. Future tripping is creating imaginations of what is going to happen and then actually take a mental and emotional trip to live there for a bit.  It is ‘what am I going to do if _________ (fill in the blank), what am I going to say if __________, what would our family go through if _____________.  Have you ever done that? The trouble is - when you create a world in the future, it’s your world. God doesn’t live there. The only world God lives in is the present - and He’s already taken care of every need we have through the slain Lamb. I’m God in those future worlds, and I don’t do a very good job. The next time you catch yourself taking a future trip, remember that. God has already finished His work and He’s in your present world. Search for Him here.
- #20 Understanding these two truths also informs our relationships. There are 3 kinds of relationships:
- #21 I can come to any relationship: as a transaction - what I can get from a person - the best deal for me
- #22 relational - what I and another can get from each other - a common good
- #23 as part of the Trinity - understanding every relationship as having another dimension to it - divine Let’s put it another way
- #24 The Jewish scholar Martin Buber came up with the distinction between I- It and I - You - the difference between transactional and relational. But Buber did not see God as Trinity and did not include the dimension that changes everything - what I call I - You - Him. Let me give you some examples. The ultimate earthly relationship is marriage. I - It - I’m in it for me only. I - You - We’re in it together. But when you mix in the Kabod, I - You - Him, it brings the eternal. I - It fails always. I - You will get you a little ways. But what happens when one or both of the parties no longer have anything to give? When a marriage has a third dimension to it - the dimension where the other two truly get everything they need - that’s what will last. Our marriage. That applies to all relationships. If we try to get our needs met through I-It and I-You, transactional and relational, we’re leaving out the true source for all of our needs. I should be able to relate to you, to serve you, to love you without strings - why? - because I know that my needs are met by a third party. And that’s where the Kabod comes in. If we want to experience what Jesus prayed about - the glory He had with the Father before the world was - we have to recognize that because of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, everything has already been done to meet our needs - our sins are forgiven and we are complete in Him - already. Then we can enter a situation knowing that we don’t have to get anything from it. We can develop true relationships because we have chosen to enter into the dance. Even while I’m teaching, I could do this as I-It (it’s all about me...I can’t wait to hear them say that was great) or I-You (I’m really communicating and connecting with you guys and both of us are getting something) or I-You-Him (that’s when I may be teaching and you may be listening and learning - but when He speaks to you something beyond what I’m saying - more than I have the capacity to give) That’s the Kabod. That’s when you hear the voice of the Father inviting you to the dance...and your ticket has been paid by what the Son has already done...and the dance is possible because the Spirit lets you stand on His feet. As it says in Ephesians - “For through Him (the Son) we have access by one Spirit to the Father.” There it is. There’s the dance in a nutshell.
- #25 So we’ve started the journey back to Jesus - but we’ve only started. There’s so much more to learn. I challenge you like Gerry did last week to get rid of all your preconceived notions of Jesus and rediscover Him - get some clothes on that you don’t mind getting dirty - pack your backpack with the things and people that will help you - and you will find the radical King of the Universe. Remember - He’s not safe - but He’s good.