Jesus First
For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
1 Corinthians 2:2 (NIV)
I was asked the most interesting question by a pastor friend of mine. I thought about it for weeks after our conversation. He asked, “Hey Bill, if you were the singular shaper of the church today, what would be your focus and what would you change first?” And to both my answer is this: “I would require more preaching, teaching, and worshipping centered on Jesus, and far less centered on us.”
The church’s focus should be more about the lordship of Jesus, and less about our cultural circumstances, our political issues, or our gender and sexual identity issues. I understand the need to express our worth and our value, our strengths and our potential. I know that we’ve got to speak truth to power, and I know we have issues related to race and politics. Trust me, I get it. We need to be reminded of our inheritance and our spiritual status. We need to be told on a repetitive basis that we’ve got victory and we walk with spiritual might. We need to celebrate the blessings and favor and open doors that God extends to us. But none of these things should be the primary focus of the church. Preemptive above all else is the lordship and the atoning sacrifice of Jesus.
Why? Because unless we had been made alive in Jesus, we would be floating dead in trespasses and sins, so nothing else matters as much.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying these things don’t matter at all—because they do. I’m saying they do not matter as much as our focus on Jesus. We need to be encouraged, we need to be motivated, we need self-esteem and character building and training. But these are peripheral things, and all of them are enveloped under the lordship of Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the undeniable, indisputable, irrefutable, singular Son of the living God. And He alone can save by His divine power. It’s time for the church to turn its focus back to where it belongs and keep the main thing the main thing.
Jesus, the Great Physician
Jesus answered and said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Luke 5:31-32 (NKJV)
The first thing Matthew does after his decision to become a follower of Jesus is to invite Him over to his house for dinner. Matthew’s intent is to invite others who will celebrate with him the decision he has made. Matthew honors Jesus at the dinner, wanting everybody to know that Jesus has changed his life. At the dinner are fellow tax collectors and other individuals, whom the Pharisees view simply as “sinners.”
Before the celebration progresses too far, however, those Pharisees start in on Jesus. They approach His disciples and complain: “Why does Jesus eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
This question is intended to raise suspicions about Jesus’s authenticity and legitimacy as a moral and spiritual leader because He’s hanging out with these spiritually “unacceptable” people.
But Jesus paints a gripping picture of how we should see ourselves and how we should see Him. His answer to the question is essentially this: I am like a doctor, and if I am standing with a healthy person (as you Pharisees think you are in your own eyes) and a sick person (as you view these that I'm enjoying dinner with), which one needs me more?” And of course the answer is the sick person.
Jesus is the Great Physician. He is the eternal spiritual doctor, and He’s practicing medicine, so to speak, on people who are sick from spiritual neglect. He is healing those who have been made even more ill from the malpractice of people like the Pharisees. He is writing out prescriptions, administering dosages, and reversing symptoms.
This portrait that Jesus paints of Himself is a window through which we peer to more deeply understand His relationship to us. Is He Savior? Yes. Is He Sustainer? Yes. Provider, Defender, Sanctifier, Master, and Redeemer? Yes, all of these and more. But Jesus Himself also suggests that He is a Physician.
What spiritual ailment are your suffering from today? Bring it to the Great Physician to be diagnosed, treated, and healed.
Dormant Potential
We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)
Not long ago, a seed was discovered within a pyramid in Egypt. It was estimated that the seed was at least 3,000 years old. Just for the fun of it, they decided to plant it and see if it would sprout and grow. To their surprise, it did. It taught them a powerful lesson. Seeds have the ability to store their potential to germinate for a remarkably long time.
That seed teaches us a powerful lesson as well. That seed is a representation of you and me. It teaches us that no matter how long we are repressed, locked in, restricted, imprisoned, or quarantined, the potential for growth, for good, and for fruit is still there.
When that seed finally had the chance to be planted, the 3,000 years of dormancy didn’t matter one bit, because all the potential—all of the power—was still there inside it.
The seed didn’t focus on the limitations of the past. As soon as it was planted, it said, “Let’s go!” and the potential that was waiting inside was released, to God’s glory.
Maybe you are facing a period of restriction, setback, dormancy, or silence. Maybe you feel like your soul has been encapsulated in an Egyptian tomb for thousands of years—alone, neglected, and forgotten.
Let that one little seed be your reminder that there is still potential inside of you.
You still have so much to give, so much to do, so much to show the world—and when you do, God will be glorified.
Moments of Doubt
Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
John 20:24-25 (NIV)
Jesus met Thomas at his point of need. He showed Thomas the evidence Thomas needed to remove all doubt. Kneeling down and filled with wonder at the Lord’s proof, Thomas said, “My Lord, my God!” Thomas received the evidence he needed and he responded with worship and belief.
Why must doubt be considered such a bad thing? Seeking what we do not know can help us journey forward. After all, it’s how we grow. Faith is found in doubtful moments, in times when we cannot believe.
You’re not less of a Christian because you’re nursing doubts. It’s a barometer, a prognosis about where you are in your faith right now. Jesus is essentially saying to Thomas, “Thomas, I don’t want you walking around disbelieving the resurrection, because without the belief of the resurrection, there could be no salvation. So I need you to believe that I am in fact resurrected. Therefore come here, touch Me, and see if I’m real.” And when he does, Thomas’s doubts have to step back, and Thomas says, “Oh my God and my Master.”
And that’s where many of us are today. We’re upset with ourselves because we’re thinking, “How can I sit here wondering if God can make a way when, for so long, He’s proven Himself faithful? But these doubts, they just keep confusing and clouding my spiritual conversation.”
Concerning those thoughts, Jesus says, “It’s all right. I know you have them. You’re human. And I know you have doubts. That’s okay. That’s why I’m going to stand here with My wounds and let you touch Me—because I need you to know that I am real.”
Your doubts are not always the absence of faith. Sometimes they’re just an indication that faith needs to be pushed to the next level.
The One Jesus Loves
Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them.
John 21:20 (NIV)
Ralph Waldo Emerson described greatness by saying, “A great man [or woman] is always willing to be little.” Jesus told us that the path of greatness is paved with servanthood, and that, if you want to be great, you must be a servant.
That makes John not only a strong disciple of Jesus, but it makes him a really great man. John is an admirable example of modesty for each one of us. It’s surprising just how much, in the book that bears his name, John intentionally turns the spotlight away from himself. His name means “to whom the Lord is gracious” or “whom the Lord has graciously given.”
From the time John becomes a disciple, he reveals deep, gifted, and spiritual potential. He must learn, however, to fight some of his inner ambitions. He has to learn how to surrender to a higher calling of God in his life until he reaches a place of maturity where he stops seeking seats and stations and status and selection. Instead, he surrenders to being shaped by spirituality that empowers him to offer surrender, service, sacrifice, and selflessness.
The book that bears his name portrays John as a loyal and faithful follower of Jesus—so much so that he becomes a part of Jesus’ inner circle. He was privileged to witness Jesus’ raising of the daughter of Jairus from the dead. He witnessed Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain. He bore witness to Jesus’ agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. But interestingly enough, all John ever wrote about himself is that he is one whom the Lord loved.
My friend, are you willing to set aside fame, ambition, attention, notoriety, acclaim, recognition, glory, and renown to be known simply as “the one whom Jesus loves”?
