The Person of Jesus

Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing – The Call to Intimacy

Hebrews 1;1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

This establishes Christ as our last day prophet, God’s son and heir of all things, the creator of the worlds, and the purger of our sins. It also places Him back at the right hand of the Father.

This is important to note as we enter our study.

In order to grow in our relationship with God we must first believe and then surrender to this fact.

And although we see Christ as our redeemer on high we must as disciples remember the life of Jesus as he walked on earth and he called His disciples His friends. As His Friends He desires an intimate relationship with us.

Read John 15; 9-16

A Pastor friend once told me that we always have to remember to “Keep the main thing, the main thing.”

The most important thing is an intimate relationship with Jesus. The only acceptable Christian agenda is to be “found in Him”. Reaching the level where we disappear and exist in the glow of the glory of God. Losing our identity and taking on His.

In our getting to know Christ, we will find that what was so important to us fades in the excellence of knowing Him. This will reveal itself as a passionate desire to know Him more.

The Apostle Paul’s desire was to merge into Christ. He wanted to be lost in the image of the Son of God. To be consumed by His glory to the point to where there was no definition between him and Christ.

The apostle Paul tells us that there is no way that he could aspire to such a level of righteousness so it must be the righteousness of God through the Faith of Christ.

Philippians 3:7 howbeit what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ.

 8 Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ,

 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith:

 10 that I may know him,

This can only happen by spending time with Him.

Today a large percentage of Christians are feeding off other Christian’s “subjective” interpretations of God and fail to feed from the objective and holy LOGOS (Word) of God.

Many of today’s so–called prophets are living in a “Rock Star” status built upon their subjective interpretation of God’s word that tells people what they want to hear instead of speaking words that will lead a heart to repentance.

Many of the prophets of old were not popular as they many times spoke the word from God without fear of men. These prophets shook nations and kings by delivering the objective word of God as it was delivered to them.

For a moment let’s look at the earthly ministry of Christ.

In chapter 4 of Matthew we read how Jesus began to preach in the synagogues, healing the sick and delivering people from spiritual oppression.

Matthew 4:23  And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

He became famous in a very short time.

Matthew 4:24 And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.

Everywhere He went there was a crowd.

We cannot use a better example for what a disciple for Christ should study than the things that Jesus himself used in training the 12 men he called as His disciples.

The type of men that Jesus called were just normal men. Fishermen, a publican or tax collector, even a Zealot.

In chapter 4 we can see an example of the type of men Jesus called.

Matthew 4:18  And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.

 19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

 20 And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.

 21 And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them.

 22 And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.

These were hard working, humble, uncomplicated, simple men with searching hearts.

In Matthew chapter 5 Jesus begins to teach them.

The “Beatitudes“, listed here, actually are the building blocks for discipleship.

Chapter 5 starts out describing the situation.

Matthew 5:1 and seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:

 2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

In the midst of all this activity and popularity he set down and began to teach his disciples.

Jesus started laying the ground rules for this ministry team.

Matthew 5:3 blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Poor in spirit – a beggar

Two things speak to me through this

Keep a humble spirit and practice a life of humility.

You must do both. You can try to portray humility by some facod you have built for the benefit of others but deep inside you are filled with pride. This is false humility.

You also can actually have a humble heart but try to portray a tough guy spirit.

Neither of these cases are effective.

It is sad and oppressive when a poor person tries to give the impression that he is rich.

Also, I have known people with money that try to give the impression that they are poor.

If you have a problem with pride, confess it to God and he will deliver you from that bondage.

And if you are blessed with a humble spirit let it show.

The point that Jesus was making in His instruction was, “Peter James John, don’t let all this popularity go to your head and make you proud.”

The second thing that spoke to me though this passage is that we are to seek out the poor in spirit.

In the world when someone rich and famous comes in we take notice. Sometimes we even envy them. At the very least we want them to be our best friend.

On the other hand, if someone comes by that is just the opposite we tend to move on.

But these are the people who Christ came for.

Lu 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

• To be poor in spirit is:

• To have a humble opinion of ourselves;

• To be sensible that we are sinners, and have no righteousness of our own;

• To be willing to be saved only by the rich grace and mercy of God;

• To be willing to be where God places us,

• To bear what he lays on us,

• To go where he bids us,

• To die when he commands;

• To be willing to be in his hands,

• To feel that we deserve no favor from him.

• To be opposed to pride, vanity, and ambition.

Such people are happy:

The next statement is….

Matthew 5:4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

When we think of mourning we think of mourning the loss of something.

The very meaning of the word means to grieve and the physical act of mourning is to wail or cry.

In the context of this passage, the grieving and the physical manifestation of this word was in response to the message Christ had been preaching.

Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Where is the mourning today?

The greatest experience of the Gospel of Christ is the deep sorrow experienced during true repentance and the great comfort and freedom that comes when He embraces us with his love.

The very meaning of the word comforted in this passage means “to call near or invite”

It is great to praise and rejoice but it loses its impact on us when we do not repent.

How many times have we said we are sorry this week to our partner or love ones when we have offended them?

I don’t know about you but when I know I have said something or offended my wife or kids, in some way, I am miserable until I have repented to them.

When this happens and we hug or “call them near” nothing is as refreshing.

Yet, when it comes to Jesus we sometimes shrug it off and say, “Jesus’ knows how I am” or “HE GETS US”.

Yes he does but the act of repentance is needed. The close communication involved in true repentance brings us closer to him.

Then when we rejoice, we rejoice.

The purest sacrifice you can give to God is one of true repentance.

Ps 51:16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.

 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.

We read in Psalms 24 verses 3-5,

    Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? [4] He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. [5] He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Believe – pisteuo – The act of considering the Lord Jesus worthy of trust as to His character and motives, the act of placing confidence in His ability to do just what He says He will do, the act of entrusting the salvation of his soul into the hands of the Lord Jesus, the act of committing the work of saving his soul to the care of the Lord. This means taking one’s self out of one’s own keeping and entrusting one’s self into the keeping of the Lord.

Jim Elliot was a missionary to South America. In his commitment to knowing Jesus he said, “He is no fool to give what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Jim Elliot gave his life for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ a long time before he was killed by a tribe of headhunters in the jungles of Ecuador.