How To Really Get Into Jesus
INTRO: What do we do to really know Jesus? The New Year is here and many of us – myself included – have things we want to get done. Things we failed last year to do. Often these are things we have been planning on accomplishing for a long time. What about Jesus, what will you do with Him this year? Have you been planning on looking to Him? Have you been planning on accepting Him and just haven’t got it done? Are all your plans for Him…LATER, LATER, LATER?
Today I want to look at getting into Jesus. I want to spend some time looking at how we get that job done. Let’s start.
James 2:1 NKJV
1My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Lord of glory, with partiality.
2For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings,
in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes,
3and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say
to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand
there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,”
4have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges
with evil thoughts?
5Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this
world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to
those who love Him?
6But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you
and drag you into the courts?
7Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?
8If you really fulfill the royal law according to the
Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well;
9but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by
the law as transgressors.
10For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point,
he is guilty of all.
11For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do
not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have
become a transgressor of the law.
12So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of
liberty.
13For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy.
Mercy triumphs over judgment.
14What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has
faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?
15If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,
16and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and
filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body,
what does it profit?
17Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me
your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
19You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons
believe—and tremble!
20But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works
is dead?
21Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered
Isaac his son on the altar?
22Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by
works faith was made perfect?
23And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed
God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was
called the friend of God.
24You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith
only.
25Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when
she received the messengers and sent them out another way?
26For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works
is dead also.
Most critical scholars in the fields of history and biblical studies believe that some parts of the New Testament are useful for reconstructing Jesus' life agreeing that he was a Jew who was regarded as a teacher and healer. They also generally accept that he was baptized by John the Baptist, and was crucified in Jerusalem on the orders of the Roman Prefect of Judaea, Pontius Pilate, on the charge of sedition against the Roman Empire. - wikipedia
Quadratus stated:
“The words of our Savior were always present, for they were true: those who were healed, those who rose from the dead, those who were not only seen in the act of being healed or raised, but were also always present, not merely when the Savior was living on earth, but also for a considerable time after his departure, so that some of them survived even to our own times.” - wikipedia
Non-Christian:
There are passages relevant to Christianity in the works of four major non-Christian writers of the late 1st and early 2nd centuries – Josephus, Tacitus, Suetonius, and Pliny the Younger.
Jews await Him (unfortunately they know not for whom they await)
Shepherds adored Him
Wise men sought (and found) Him
Herod tried to kill Him – Josephus recorded this as well
Demons fear Him – James 2:19
Critics (Saul) persecuted Him
Demonic worshipped Him – Mark 5:1-9
Mark
5:1-9 KJV 1And they came over unto the other side of the sea,
into the country of the Gadarenes.
2And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out
of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,
3Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind
him, no, not with chains:
4Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and
the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces:
neither could any man tame him.
5And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the
tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.
6But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,
7And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee,
Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou
torment me not.
8For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean
spirit.
9And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying,
My name is Legion: for we are many.
Sinners seek Him
Believers follow Him
Outcasts listened to Him – woman at the well
John
4:6-30 NKJV 6Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being
wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth
hour.
7A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me
a drink.”
8For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
9Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a
Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with
Samaritans.
10Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and
who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He
would have given you living water.”
11The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and
the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?
12Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and
drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”
13Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will
thirst again,
14but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never
thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of
water springing up into everlasting life.”
15The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not
thirst, nor come here to draw.”
16Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
17The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”Jesus said to
her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’
18for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is
not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”
19The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.
20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say
that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”
21Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you
will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for
salvation is of the Jews.
23But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will
worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to
worship Him.
24God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in
spirit and truth.”
25The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is
called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”
26Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
27And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled
that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are
You talking with her?”
28The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and
said to the men,
29“Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could
this be the Christ?”
30Then they went out of the city and came to Him.
John
4:39-42 NKJV 39And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in
Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever
did.”
40So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay
with them; and He stayed there two days.
41And many more believed because of His own word.
42Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what
you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is
indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
Luke
19:1-10 NKJV 1Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.
2Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief
tax collector, and he was rich.
3And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the
crowd, for he was of short stature.
4So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for
He was going to pass that way.
5And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and
said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at
your house.”
6So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully.
7But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, “He has
gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.”
8Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half
of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false
accusation, I restore fourfold.”
9And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house,
because he also is a son of Abraham;
10for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was
lost.”
Zacchaeus was honored with salvation that day
2
Corinthians 5:17-21 KJV 17Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto
himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us
the word of reconciliation.
20Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you
by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
21For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin;
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
He brings new better things - 17
He removes old bad things - 17
He reconciles us or fixes us with God - 18
He takes our place – 21
We take His place (made the righteousness of God) – 21c
And let us not forget to…
Gary Marcum – New Beginnings Church – 011010am