In the opening chapters of the New Testament, we’re introduced to a man named John the Baptist. He was a cousin of Jesus. He’s an eccentric personality. The Bible tells us he wore clothing made of camel hair, had a big leather belt, and ate locusts and wild honey. He lived in the rugged, Judean backcountry. I always picture Him as being larger than life, like Grizzly Adams. Or perhaps like Phil, from Duck Dynasty.
John had a simple and profound mission—to announce the arrival of God’s salvation to the world. Whenever people marveled at John, he always deflected attention away from himself, and put the spotlight on Jesus. He’d say, “I’m not even worthy to unstrap the sandals of the Christ.” He’d say, “Behold! The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The one who has come after me surpasses me because he was before me. The whole reason I came baptizing was that he might be revealed. He must become greater, I must become less!”
John’s mission is now our mission. The thing we’re fighting for in this world is that people would see Jesus. It’s that he would become greater, and we become less.
Jesus is The Center of Reality
One reason people need to see Jesus is because Jesus is The Center of Reality. John the Baptist put it this way, “He who has come after me surpasses me because he was before me.” Biologically, John the Baptist was 6 months older than Jesus! What did he mean, that Jesus came “before” him? John the Baptist understood that Jesus existed before time even began.
The Apostle John, one of Jesus’ closest follower, not to be confused with John the Baptists, tells in John 1:1-3, 9-11, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of mankind… the light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his did not receive him.”
I know, I know. We’re told reality makes more sense if you eliminate any thought of God, and especially any thought of Jesus. People have undertaken monumental efforts to come up with some plausible explanation for our existence that excludes God. We don’t have time to rehearse all the theories there are, about the origin of mankind. But let me say this, the further we peer out into the cold dark universes… the deeper we understand the building blocks of life, DNA, or the nature of energy/matter, the more inexplicable/implausible/impossible/utterly miraculous/ and super-natural our existence appears to be. We’re infinite complex. We’re personal. We’re moral. We love good and hate evil. We have consciousness and self-awareness. We’re relational, interdependent, creative, intelligent, we speak and act with free will.
The Apostle Paul, like Apostle John, describes Jesus in cosmic categories. Colossians 1:15-17, “The Son [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together…” If you are into science, the origin of life is as much a mystery as whatever it is that sustains, and propels, and keeps fueling life.
The creator, the sustainer, the very center of all reality is the living God. The center of all reality isn’t dead, impersonal matter and impersonal forces of energy, but a very personal who dwells from all eternity Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. An intelligent, knowing, speaking, acting, creative, self-aware, life-giving God who fashioned us in his image, breathed life into our bodies, and gave us living souls. And Jesus is the center of all ultimate reality, He is our creator and sustainer, our God. Nothing in all reality makes any sense until we plug Jesus Christ into the center of it all, including our own lives.
Jesus is The Center of All Scripture
A second reason people need to see Jesus is because Jesus is The Center of All Scripture. Now I have to explain very clearly what Scripture is. Scripture is an account, that spans from the beginning of all time (Genesis) to the end of all time (Revelation). It is an account of God’s “supernatural” working in time, space, and history. The first thing the modern mind rejects is this notion that there can be any kind of supernatural working whatsoever!
If you are a history buff, you may recall how Thomas Jefferson took a razor to the Bible, and cut out every miracle he found. Years ago, the Jesus Seminar did the same thing. And there have been many others who have rewritten the Bible, removing everything supernatural. Creation didn’t happen. Adam and Eve didn’t happen. Noah didn’t happen. Abraham, Sodom & Gomorrah. Moses/Exodus/Ten Commandments didn’t happen. Jonah and the whale, Elijah/Elisha, didn’t happen. Jesus existed, but he was just a moral philosopher, a good man. And no Biblical prophesies, predictions, could have possibly happened. People are so hostile to this idea of God, they shred the Scriptures themselves.
In John 5, the Scriptural experts (the teachers of the Law) are interrogating Jesus. They want to know why Jesus is proclaiming himself to be the Son of God. By the way, no matter how hard modern scholars try, they cannot get around Jesus self-identity, his self-consciousness, his sense of self-awareness that he is the Son of God. But Jesus tells these skeptics a number of truths...
(1) First, it doesn’t really matter what I testify about myself.
(2) Second, he reminds them of John the Baptist’s testimony. They believed John the Baptist to be a prophet, but John believed Jesus was the Lamb of God. So did they believe John the Baptist or not?
(3) Jesus told them to consider the works he was doing. Could they explain the miraculous works he was doing, his teaching, any other way than to attribute his power to the existence of a good God? No they could not!
(4) Jesus reminds them how the Father actually has given not just them (but all men) testimony, declaring Jesus to be His One and Only Son. Jesus says, “the Father who sent me has Himself testified concerning me.” But this only confused them more. They’d never heard God’s audible voice nor seen God’s physical form. You would say the same about yourself right? You’ve never heard God’s voice, nor experience a physical manifestation of God’s form! Right? So what does Jesus say? He says you guys are absolutely right, “You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”
Not just the New Testament, but the whole Scripture, testifies about Jesus. If you want to do some interesting reading, read Luke 24 this week. Two of Jesus’ disciples are walking on the road to Emmaus. They are distraught and sad, because Jesus was crucified and died. But as their talking, Jesus walks up behind them, but kept them from recognizing his identity. He plays dumb and says, “So what are you guys talking about?” When they mention Jesus of Nazareth, the express disappointment. He was this prophet, powerful in word and deed, before God and people. He was sentenced to death, and was crucified. We hoped he was going to redeem Israel, but now he’s dead, and what’s worse his body has disappeared, and some of his followers are saying he raised from the grave!
Luke 24:27 tells how Jesus, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” Wouldn’t you have liked to have heard that sermon? As they walk along, suddenly the eyes of these two disciples are opened, and they recognize Jesus, and Jesus disappears from their sight. And they’re like “Ah man, were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
You know, you look at creation. All creation, the heavens, declare the glory of God. You read the Bible, and I don’t mean as a cynic, or scholar… you read the Bible through eyes of faith… and your heart just burns within your chest. You can’t nearly slice up the Bible (thank you Thomas Jefferson) and come even close to de-Jesus’ing Scripture, de-supernaturalizing Jesus, de-miracalizing, de-prophesying, de-resurrecting Jesus. God gave testimony to the coming of his Son Jesus over the span of 6000 years of Bible history. Every time the Apostles opened their mouth to proclaim Jesus, they held out the Scriptures as testimony.
Jesus is The Center of All History
A third reason people need to see Jesus is because Jesus is The Center of All History. The central fact of all Christianity is that the Father sent His One and Only Son into the world. Jesus came from the Father full of grace and truth. Jesus was fully God, but fully man, born of a virgin. Jesus was the lamb of God who’d come to take away the sins of the world. On that cross, Jesus suffered and died, to forever pay the penalty for sin, to be our righteousness before God, to be our advocate, to be our justification. He died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried according to the Scriptures, he was raised on the third days according to the Scriptures. He ascended to the right hand of the Father, and reigns in power, according to the Scriptures. And just as Christ died, was buried, and raised, so we too can live a new life.
But check this out. None of this “happened in a corner.” This is the exact explanation Paul uses, when standing before King Festus. When Paul mentions Jesus resurrection King Festus stops Paul and says, “You are your of your mind Paul! Your great learning is driving you insane!” But Paul counters saying, “Most excellent Festus… I am not insane. What I am saying is true and reasonable. The King is familiar with these things, and I can speak freely to him. I am convinced none of this stuff has escaped his notice because it didn’t happen in a corner. King Festus… do you believe the prophets?”
Not only did Jesus death, burial and resurrection happen in perfect fulfillment of the law/prophets/Scriptures… it happened on center stage in Jerusalem. Jesus was crucified on the busiest weekend in Jerusalem, when people from every nation on earth were traveling to Jerusalem for the Passover. Jesus was crucified in full view of his Roman and Jewish persecutors. They sealed his body in a tomb, and assigned professional soldiers to guard over his body. They already knew Jesus predicted his own resurrection. They were mitigating their risks, taking every precaution to guard body.
When Jesus was raised from the grave it was a spectacle. It occurred on center stage! The evidence. The testimonies of Jews and Romans hostile to Jesus. His appearance. The testimony of Scripture and the prophets. If they could have put the story of Jesus death, burial and resurrection down, they would have done it long before the day of Pentecost. But in the aftermath of the crucifixion and Jesus’ resurrection, where do we find the apostles? They’re in Jerusalem, on center stage, in the Temple, and they announce, “You turkeys killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead! Let all Israel be assured of this, God made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ/Messiah!”
The resurrection is the single most pivotal event in all of human history. No historical person, no historical claim, has done more to scandalize mankind than has the person of Jesus and his resurrection from the grave. The baton has been handed to you and me, to share this Jesus, who stands not just in the center of all reality, but the center of all Scripture, and indeed the center of all history!
Jesus is The Center of All Salvation.
A fourth reason people need to see Jesus is because Jesus is The Center of All Salvation. In Acts 4:12 the Apostles announce, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” In Acts 2:37 we’re told how the crowds at Pentecost were cut to the heart by the realization they’d crucified the Christ, and they ask, “Whatever shall we do?” To which Peter says, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive you the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is for you, and your children, and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call.” “With many other words Peter warned them, and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.”
We cannot go on ignoring the God of all reality, the God of Scripture, the God of all history, the God of all salvation Christ Jesus our Lord. The time for you to acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Christ, the Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, is coming to an end. What will you do with this Jesus? Will you make him the center of your life? Will he become greater? Will you become less? Will you declare his name, and reveal God’s salvation? Will you finally repent of your stubbornness and sin? Will you finally declare your allegiance to Christ in the waters of baptism? Will you confess Jesus as Lord and Savior of your soul? Will you walk anew with him in his Kingdom? Will you worship and give thanks to your God and Savior, your creator and sustainer, Jesus Christ? Will you humbly walk in obedience, desiring to please Christ in everything? Now that I’ve done my part sharing my Jesus, will you make him your own? And will you share Jesus?