Message Description

Russ Brasher brings the meaning of Christ’s life to light in a message title “Simply Jesus”.

Message Transcript

Welcome to Orchard Hill Church! Happy new year, everyone. My name is Russ Brasher. I'm on staff here at Orchard Hill Church with the Adult Ministry Team, and I want to welcome all of you. It's great to be together. 

So please join me and be in this message together using the comment option as we partake in this sermon that I'm going to call Simply Jesus. But before we dive into today's texts, let me just quickly take a moment and pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this time and this opportunity. Lord, we thank you for the gift of technology that allows us to gather in ways like this online, that we can still come together, look at your word, ask questions and have you meet us where we're at. Lord, if I have prepared anything that doesn't bring you glory or draws people to your son, would you remove it and replace it with that which does. Lord, again, we thank you for this chance and this opportunity to be together. We ask this all in your name. Amen. 

In my pursuit of a seminary degree at Moody Bible Institute, I came across someone who has become one of my favorite professors. His name is Dr. Bill Thrasher. And during one of his classes that I was taking, he asked all of us a question. And this was the question he asked, "What is the basic or simple message of the Bible?" Before I reveal his answer, I'm curious, how would you try to answer this question? What is the basic or simple message of the Bible? I know that there are probably a number of different reasons or things that would influence how you and I might try to choose to answer this question. But here is how Dr. Thrasher answered it. He said, "The answer to what is the basic or simple message of the Bible is to tell us what God is like." To tell us what God is like. 

You see, while I was scrambling and trying to come up with this complex and educated answer based off everything I've come to know and study about scripture, Dr. Thrasher's answer completely caught me off guard and surprised me. It surprised me because it was so simple. Here I was trying to come up and make something that is actually very simple. I was trying to make it complicated. And in response to my failed attempt to come up with an answer that I felt needed to be perfect, I had to ask myself another question. Why was I trying to make something complicated that was actually so simple? So, what about you? What was your answer? Were you like me at all, scrambling to come up with an answer that made sense? But the question that I had to ask myself in my failure to give this answer was, why was I complicating something so simple? 

I had to take a moment and do some personal self-evaluation, and here's what I realized, and maybe you realized this too, that I have a tendency more times than not, in more areas in my life than I care to admit, I tend to jump past or overlook simple and go straight to complicated. Again, maybe share an example of how this might be true of you or how you see this play out. But let me for a moment give you an example from my own life. Everybody makes New Year's resolutions. I myself have done so in the past, but I've got to tell you that there have been many resolutions that I've made that I've failed to live out. One of them is a particular year I made the resolution to exercise more and lose weight instead of keeping it simple, like just not eating as much fast food, or maybe eating more vegetables or more fruit. Or how about even just committing to 30 days of doing one push-up and sit-up a day? Something simple, easy. That would have been obtainable maybe. 

But what I chose to do is jump past simple and go extremely complicated, 100 per hour in the other direction. I spent a fortune on the latest and most intense workout DVD series I could find. I ran to GNC and bought every vitamin and supplement and protein shake and creatine powder that they had that promised to boost and make me look like the people on the cover. And I also committed to the most ridiculous and insane diet routine that went against and questioned everything I knew to be true about food and eating. Let's just say that the proof is here in front of you. I did not last very long in my commitment to exercise more and lose weight. To this day, I don't think I've eaten another vegetable. But here's my point. Perhaps if I would have not gone so complicated and kept it simple, things would have been different. 

But if you have the same tendency as I do, more times than not, then trying to answer this next question that Dr. Thrasher proposed to my class might be just as complicated. The next question he asked is, "What is the purpose of my life?" What is the purpose of your life? Again, my curiosity is getting the best of me. How would you answer this question? But this question, maybe not the last one, but this question should get you leaning in and on the edge of your seat, because if you're like me, this is a question that at some point in your life, you have asked yourself some version of it. What is the purpose of my life? What am I supposed to do with my life? Why am I here? When we start to look at the Bible, it gives us an answer to this question. And it begins right in Genesis as we look at God's greatest creation, humankind, Adam and Eve. 

We see that in the very beginning of scripture, God's ultimate purpose for your life and my life is to bring us into right relationship with God. And this answer is simple, just like the previous, but this answer is one that you and I tend to question and doubt just like Adam and Eve did and we think that we actually have to look outside of God to find our real true and ultimate purpose. I think the pursuit of this answer is why so many of us, myself included, spend so much time coming up and making these New Year's resolutions in the first place and putting so much hope and expectation in their outcome. We hope that if certain things are different than this year then maybe finally, we will be able to experience and obtain some of that purpose that we've been searching for in our life. I mean, majority of us, let's face it, it's now already a few days into 2021, we've already started to plan or have already made some New Year's resolutions with hopes that 2021 will be different and better than 2020. 

Earlier, I mentioned my failed attempt at some of these resolutions because I made them more complicated than they needed to be. But what about you? What plans, what goals, what dreams, what resolutions, what hopes do you have for 2021? Don't get me wrong, making resolutions and putting yearlong goals on a piece of paper are a good thing. They're a great thing. In fact, my wife Lindsay and I, we've already put in place and put in motion some of these goals and resolutions with a ton of hope and anticipation that 2021 will in fact be different than 2020. But there is also a real danger, a danger in allowing the results of these resolutions or goals to define you and me and give us our sense of purpose, especially if and when they don't turn out as you and I might've hoped. 2020, man was that a year, and it taught us a lot. 

But one of the things that it definitely taught us is we can come out with all the right resolutions, make all the right goals, and give it our best efforts, but then life can get really complicated really fast and really unexpected, regardless of our efforts. So, before you and I begin to start complicating things this year, only a few days in, with all of our plans, with all of our agendas and resolutions that we're hoping that will make this year greater than the past, maybe we need to simply pause for a moment and ask ourselves a few more questions. The first is, what is the purpose of my life? Because purpose creates priority and priority gives perspective. So, let's look again at purpose and ask the question, what is the purpose of my life? Remember, the Bible tells us that God's ultimate purpose for your life and my life is to bring us into right relationship with him. 

As we to look at scripture, Proverbs three, five, and six says, "To trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways, submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." Famous Christian author A.W. Tozer once said, "What comes to your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you." So, if Proverbs and Tozer are right, if God does exist and we are to trust in him that our ultimate purpose actually comes from knowing him and being in right relationship with him, then we owe it, not just to ourselves, but to God as well, to try to figure out and investigate what God is like." And if the basic message of the Bible really is to tell us what God is like, then the simplest way to do this is to look at God's word. 

Second Timothy 3:16 tells us that, "All scripture, the entire Bible, is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness." And what this verse tells us is that every word in here is the authentic and authoritative word of God that is going to begin to show us and paint the picture and describe for you and me exactly what God is like. You see, you and I hold the very power of God in our hands when we choose to grab this book and open it and begin to read it. Reading God's word, it's powerful, it's exciting, and it has the potential to be life changing. It's why if you stick around Orchard Hill long enough, you'll notice that we are always talking about life groups and offering various studies throughout the year, because we know, and we have seen and heard the testimonies that when people gather together, when they open God's word and they begin to investigate what God is like, that lives are changed forever. 

The Bible is also very clear that if you want to know what God is like, the simplest and easiest way to find out is take a closer look, be invited in to come and see who Jesus is and what he's all about. Listen to how some of these verses in scripture describe Jesus. Colossians 1:15 says, "The son," referencing Jesus, "the son is the image of the invisible God." Hebrews1:3 says, "The son," again talking about Jesus, "the son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word." And John 1:14 tells us, "The word," again referencing Jesus, "the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us that we have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only son, who came from the Father full of grace and truth." 

As you look closer at the scriptures, Jesus himself confirms that if you really want to know what God is like than just accept his invitation to come to Jesus, come and see for yourself, and he will show you exactly what God is like. John 14:6 and 7 says this, "Jesus answered, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life, that no one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me,'" Jesus says, "'you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.'" Jesus also tells us in John 5:39 that, "You study the scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very scriptures that testify about me," Jesus says, "yet you refuse to come to me to have life." So, who is Jesus according to just these few scriptures that we find in the Bible? 

They tell us that Jesus is in fact the son of God, the visible image of the invisible God, the exact representation of God, that Jesus is the word who became flesh and moved in to our neighborhoods, that he is the way, the truth, and the life, that if you come to know Jesus, you have come to know God, and that all of scripture, every word, from the first in Genesis to the last in Revelation, it all testifies and points either towards or back to Jesus. Jesus Christ is the theme of scripture. Dr. Thrasher calls Jesus, "The climatic revelation of what God is actually like." Now, I don't know about you, but I would hate to be the year 2021 if it was a person. Man, there is so much pressure on this year to be different from 2020, and for good reason. If you're like me, Thursday, New Year's Eve, you celebrated this day, and we'll call it celebrate because I'm not sure that's what it was, you celebrated New Year's Eve by counting down the ball dropping by unconventionally sitting in your living room watching an empty Times Square on television. 

I don't know if you caught it, but it seemed to me that every commercial that aired, especially during these prime time shows, promised us that this year, 2021, was going to be different. And I hope, man, do I hope that they're right. But we have to face reality because what if it's not? What if it takes a lot longer to be different than we are hoping or expecting? Or what if it actually might even get worse? What if 2021 ends up being just like every other year, that according to a 2018 study conducted at the University of Scranton says that you and I will join the rest of the 80% of the American population that does not follow through on any of their results solutions? How will we then judge or determine if our life, if your life, if my life actually has any purpose or significance? We can do this by keeping the ultimate purpose of our lives our top priority, because purpose creates priority. 

If you spend any time with people who love Jesus and are in that right relationship with him this is where that freedom, that joy, and the hope that Christians are talking about is experienced at its deepest level. When you and I know that our ultimate purpose is actually found in knowing God and being in right relationship with him, when this purpose is what you and I begin to choose to prioritize above all things, then regardless, regardless of what may or may not happen in 2021, that we as Christians can still smile and say with full confidence that God is good. This is what the Gospel is all about. Tim Keller, one of my favorite authors, describes the Gospel this way. "The gospel is this okay. We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe. Yet, at the very same time, we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope. 

When we know our purpose and we begin to prioritize it, everything else eventually falls into its proper perspective. And this includes any resolutions, goals, dreams, promises, or expectations you have or will make in this year or in this life. I mentioned it earlier and I'll say it again, there is absolutely nothing wrong with making decisions to do something different to improve your life and make this year different. Spending more time with loved ones, working less, saving more, finding love, making new friends, breaking addictions, seeking out that new job, learning a new life skill, paying off debt, eating more vegetables, okay, maybe not that last one, but what the Gospel tells us, what the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ tells you and me, is that it is not the success or failures of your personal life that will define you or redeem you. I cannot, on my best day, with my best efforts and the best year of my life, earn my way into a right relationship with God. 

And that might sound hard to hear, but it's the most freeing truth I've ever heard in my life. And there is nothing short of freedom that is found at the foot of the cross when you and I can humbly fall to our knees before Jesus and admit this, admit that I am a sinner, that I'm not perfect and I've got major flaws, that I'm maybe tired, if I'm honest and vulnerable, I'm tired and I'm a worn out after chasing after the wind, that I'm lost and broken, and I keep trying to seek and search after the desires of my heart and trying to find them in this world even though I know that the moment I grab hold of them and whatever I do find that feeling is not going to last and I'm going to exhaust myself trying to maintain it. And if you feel the same way that, if I'm honest, I don't have it all together. 2020 revealed some things about my life that proved this to be true, and I am in desperate need of help, in desperate need of a savior. 

And this is why the Gospel is such good news. John 3:16, my all-time favorite verse, says that, "For God so loved the world," that God so loved you and me individually and personally, "for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life." These words, every time I hear them and remember them is like breathing new oxygen. You see, these words, they remind me, and they tell me that it is not actually about me, and that's okay. It's not about how good or bad I am at performing or what skills I can acquire or who will or will not accept me. I've already been accepted through Jesus, that I don't have to be defined by my past failures or mistakes, that I don't have to carry the weight and pressure of what tomorrow may or may not hold. 

Because I can rest securely in Christ, that my identity, my value, and my purpose, it does not come from how successful I am or not at keeping my New Year's resolutions, that my purpose is actually found in Christ and Christ alone. Prioritizing our ultimate purpose gives you and me perspective. God tells us we see it in scripture. He says that all we have to do is believe in Jesus Christ, in his son, and we are forgiven. We are set free. We are redeemed. We inherit royalty and eternal life, that we are given a purpose and this purpose will last for the rest of eternity. It is this eternal hope, this unconditional love, this indescribable display of grace and mercy that we see take place at the foot of the cross that allows you and me to see past the failures and mistakes of today and yesterday. Because it is not those that define us. It is not what can redeem us. It is not what gives you and me our ultimate purpose. 

Jesus Christ is the one and only person who can save you and me. This is the Gospel. Now, I think it's safe to say that every one of us is ready to say, "Farewell, bye-bye, see you later," to 2020 and have already started preparing to make 2021 different. As we all do so, can I encourage us to just be honest and vulnerable, to take a moment, no matter where you might find yourself in this investigative journey of faith, and ask ourselves some real questions? What is my current view of God? Who or what has given me this view of God? Have I taken the time to investigate for myself to determine if my view of God matches up with the Jesus I read about in scripture? How would I describe my current relationship with God? Am I allowing my relationship with God to influence me to make the types of New Year's resolutions that I find myself making and putting so much hope in? And finally, should the purpose of my resolutions be influenced by my ultimate purpose according to scripture, that is to know God and be in right relationship with him? 

If this is new or scary to you, or you have no idea where to begin your investigative journey, remember, keep it simple and don't complicate it, no more than it needs to be. Just open up a Bible, turn to one of the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John located at the beginning of the New Testament, and just begin to read one at your own pace. If you don't have a Bible, contact Orchard Hill and we would love to help get you one. One of the best parts of my job as a pastor is, I get more chances than some people to sit across from tables, or these days on Zoom chats, and hear genuine personal stories and testimonies, how people just like you and me chose to find and follow Jesus after taking some time to simply look at Jesus and investigate for themselves more about what God is actually like. And in doing so, this gave them purpose, that over time, this purpose created a priority in their heart, and eventually this priority put all other things in their proper perspective. 

When we keep it simple and remember that our ultimate purpose is to know God and to be in right relationship with him, you and I, we can rest securely knowing that no matter what happens in 2021, it will be a good year. Let me pray. Father, thank you. Thank you again for this time. Thank you again for your word. Thank you that we can come to you right now as who we are, where we're at, and we don't have to start or stop doing anything, we don't have to clean ourselves up, we can humbly admit that we are in desperate need of a savior, that we have forgotten how good you are, that we have fixed our eyes on the things of this world, and it has complicated so many things. But that you sent your son, you sent your son to save us and to redeem us. And we have the opportunity right now, today, this month, this year, to begin a new journey, one that involves you leading us in this life, giving us the purpose that we all desire. Lord, I thank you. I thank you for doing so. I thank you for your word. I thank you for this time. I thank you for this church. I thank you for technology and our ability to gather here today. And we ask this all in your name. Amen.