Jesus: A Better Vision

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0:00When I was in my early 20s, right before Noah was born, I got what I would have considered an adult job working at the Verizon Wireless Call Center in Wilmington, North Carolina. And at first it was really exciting to me, but the newness quickly wore off and I found out that that kind of job is just not for me. I mean, think about it. Do you ever call up your phone company just to tell them how great of a job they're doing? Encouragement was typically not the goal of our callers.

0:38And I had to sit in a chair like all day. And our building had these huge panoramic windows, which I think was supposed to be good, but I just felt like it was a cruel taunt, taunting me with the outside world while I sat in a beige dungeon and was accosted by our customers. That's at least how it felt to me. But I had a desk mate, Brian. He had a different perspective about the work. He wasn't delusional, okay? He didn't like being yelled at by customers, but he weathered it really well, a lot better than I did. And most people's cubicles were decorated with tons of pictures. I think that adds to my case that we were trying to be distracted from the job. But Brian had a single picture in his cubicle. It was a brand new BMW. And eventually I asked him about it and what he told me explained his ability to not just weather the work, but to actually excel in it. Brian told me that buying a brand new BMW and paying for it outright was his current goal. And then every time he got frustrated with the job or was dealing with an angry customer, he would look at the car and he would think about what it was going to be like to achieve that goal.

2:03And that helped him persevere. See, what we fix our eyes on matters. This morning, you and I, we stand at the beginning of a new year, 2025, and what you and I fix our eyes on matters, church. And I want to encourage us this morning to make the decision to fix our eyes on Jesus, to filter 2025 through the lens of who Jesus is and what that means for us. Hallelujah. Praise God. Our text this morning is Romans 1, 1-7. And in this text, the apostle Paul is beginning to address the church in Rome. And in his opening remarks, we're going to see six truths about Jesus. And my hope this morning is that you and I, we would see the truth about Jesus and that it would encourage us and compel us to live our lives for him. So let's read the passage together and then we'll jump in. And I want to remind you that this is the living and the active word of God. And God, the Holy Spirit, he uses it mightily in our lives. It's absolutely true.

3:15It is a sure foundation for our lives. This is God's word in Romans. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets and the holy scriptures concerning his son, who was descended from David, according to the flesh and was declared to be the son of God in power, according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ, our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. Grace to you and peace from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray with me, Lord.

4:13Thank you for your word. It is living and active. It is matchless. And in it, you meet us and you tell us who you are and who we are to be. Lord, would you find fertile ground in our hearts this morning for your word? And would you change us with it? It's our prayer, Lord, that we would worship you in this way. And the church of Christ says, amen. Amen. All right. So number one, we're going to see six truths about Jesus. Number one is that Jesus is our master. Our text starts like this, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus. So the apostle Paul, he wastes no time coming out of the gate to let the church in Rome know who he was. Paul says, I am a servant. And Paul was greatly used by Jesus for the good of his church, but he doesn't display any arrogance here. I mean, he could have said some pretty incredible things, but we just see humility. And one of my favorite stories involving Paul takes place in Acts 19, 11 through 20. In that text, I'll summarize it for you. It says that God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul so that even touching handkerchiefs or aprons that he touched would heal people, right? And so some Jewish exorcists, they saw the power of the name of Jesus that Paul proclaimed, and they sought to use it as they were trying to heal a man of possession from a demon. And God's word says that they said to this man, we adjure you by the Christ that Paul proclaims.

5:49You come out. And the text records that the man says, Jesus, I know. Paul, I recognize. But who are you? That's wild. Paul was so effectively used by God for kingdom work that the enemy knew who he was. That's goals, church, right? Right? He had authority. He had power. But he was humble, right? We all wield some level of authority in our lives, church. All of us, whether it's at work or at home. Some of us have a little. Some of us have a lot. How do you handle being an authority? Does it puff you up?

6:29Does it make you feel like you are owed respect and deference? Well, Paul right here in the beginning of Romans nips in the bud any illusions that we might want to have that he or we should be high and lifted up as followers of Jesus. Paul had the words of Christ ringing in his ears. The greatest among you will be a servant to all. So Paul starts his letter this way. Hello, it's Paul. First and foremost, I want you to know that I am writing to you as a servant to a master and that master is the Lord Jesus Christ.

7:03Friends, let me remind you, you already know, if you've been saved this morning, Jesus is your master. You are not the master of your own life. Jesus is. And for some of you in this room, maybe that feels really uncomfortable. This idea that Jesus is a master. Given our national history, the word master has deeply negative connotations. And then when you just add our own rebelliousness of our flesh, we don't want anyone as master. And so Jesus as master seems really unpalatable, but scripture has never lied. Not even once. Jesus is a master and he is one that you want to be a servant to. He is unlike any master the world has known. He's the master who gave up his life for his servants. He's the master whom the servants call blessed. He's the master whom the servants love knowing him and serving him as a great joy. So this morning, I want to encourage you to live your life in a way that reflects Jesus as the master and you as the servant. And that sounds pretty standard for a Christian, right? But I bet that like me, you have areas in your lives where you're not submitting to Jesus as the master. So this year, let's push into the areas where we don't want Jesus involved and fully surrender. Amen? Because in that there is freedom. So number one, truth we see is that Jesus is master. Number two, we see that Jesus is Lord of the church. Continuing in our passage, Paul writes, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of God.

8:54Now, if Jesus is our master church, then he is certainly Lord of the church. The church is made up of all the called and baptized people of Jesus. And so it is the most basic logic that Jesus, our master who saves us is also Lord of the church, his people. Paul says, I am an apostle for the gospel of God, but only because I've been set apart and I've been called and not by my own doing, but by the Lord Jesus Christ. See church, Jesus has a plan for his church. This is important. Jesus loves the church. Jesus died for the church. Jesus prayed for the church. Jesus is the great shepherd of the church. We are his bride. We're bought with his blood and being God. Jesus has the best plans for his church. Raise your hand. Does anybody think they have a better plan than the all-seeing, all-knowing, almighty God of the universe? Don't raise your hand. Okay. Don't do that. And we say, no, nobody thinks that. But a lot of churches show they think this when they abandon the teaching of scripture and when they build the church in their own image, when practicality becomes more important than biblical accuracy and obedience, we proclaim that we are Lord of the church.

10:19And I don't say that to knock other churches down. I say that because I don't think any church starts out saying, Hey, I hope we delve into heresy this year. The mission of new creation is to cultivate a hopeful community shaped by grace and truth to nourish new life in Christ. Why is that our mission church? Because that's what God's word tells us to do, right? As a people gather together, you and I, we have a mission directed by God himself. We are part of something magnificent and weighty and joyful and glorious. That's the truth. So how do we reflect that with our lives? That Jesus is the Lord of the church. Here's how we do it. Here's one way we do it.

11:15We unapologetically, with much patience and with grace, stand on the word of God and we do not budge. His plan for the church. His plan for the church is our plan for the church. We want to be a house built on the rock, not built on the sand. And as a church, we do this by individually one another can being committed to the word of God as the authority over our lives because we individually make up the church of Christ. We don't move in the face of culture. Young people hear me. We don't move in the face of culture. We don't move to the sway of our own desires. We don't budge away from what God calls us to do so we can be more comfortable. We stand and we say with our lives and our church that Jesus is Lord of the church. His word is our guide. In our membership vows, we promise to strive for the peace and the purity of the church, of Jesus's church. In 2025, let's be committed to this with more fervor once again. Jesus is Lord of the church. Number three, another truth we see in the text this morning is that Jesus is the wise conclusion of history. Verse two continues and says, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son who was descended from David according to the flesh. See, Jesus did not just appear on the scene.

12:55When you read the gospels, by the way, that the Pharisees and the scribes treated Jesus, we might think that there was little evidence of the Messiah in holy scripture, but that is, that's not the case. Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the coming Messiah. 300. Peter Stoner is a Christian mathematician and he calculated the odds of a person randomly just fulfilling 10 of these very specific prophecies. And the odds are one in 100 trillion just for 10. And my brain doesn't do good with numbers. That might as well be like the size of this room. I don't, it doesn't compute for me. So to give you a picture of that number in his book, Science Speaks, Stoner says that it would be like covering the state of Texas in silver dollars, because it's Texas, two feet deep, blindfolding a man, and then asking him to wander around and pick out the one with an X on it. That's the odds of someone fulfilling just 10. The idea that a person in history could just happen to randomly fulfill over 300 is impossible, church. The holy scriptures are not silent about the coming Messiah. The Old Testament scriptures, they, they shout about the Messiah all over the place from the, the first mention of the coming one who had rescued humanity in Genesis 3.15 to the prophecies of John the Baptist. God has been proclaiming his coming son.

14:33Okay. So now I want to go over all 300 prophecies with you. I'm kidding. Joe would never let me preach again. But let me highlight a few. The scriptures say that the Messiah would be a descendant of the great King David. Matthew's gospel shows us Jesus's genealogy and reveals that he is of the line of King David. Jesus is his royal heir. The scriptures say the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. And then even though Jesus's parents were from Nazareth, he was born in Bethlehem. The scriptures say the Messiah is to be preceded by a messenger. And John the Baptist was a reed calling out in the wilderness, make the pathway straight for the Lord. He's coming and I'm unworthy to untie his sandals.

15:23The scriptures say the Messiah would enter Jerusalem on a donkey and Jesus amid shouts of Hosanna in the highest rides into Jerusalem like a reigning King on a donkey. The scriptures say the Messiah would be betrayed by a friend. Jesus is betrayed by Judas Iscariot, one of his 12 disciples, his friend. The scriptures say the Messiah would be sold for 30 pieces of silver and 30 pieces of silver is exactly what Judas was paid to betray Jesus. And the scriptures say the Messiah was to be executed, having his hands and feet pierced. The Messiah is to be executed without a bone being broken and that he is to be laid to rest in the tomb of a rich man. And Jesus was crucified without any bones being broken and was laid to rest in Joseph Arimathea's tomb, who was in fact a rich man. And I could keep going and going and going, but church, the scriptures clearly prophesy about the coming Messiah. And Jesus is clearly the one that Holy scripture prophesies about. Anyone who does a little on a study will at least find Jesus to be a person of extreme interest. See, Dolores Smith echoes what many church fathers and biblical scholars have said when she writes this, the Old Testament prophets went to great lengths to describe the Messiah's life, death and victorious resurrection.

16:50And Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled these prophecies in such accurate detail a millennium later, a thousand years later, that there can be no doubt that he was that promised Messiah. What does this mean for us? Well, first and foremost, if you have never placed your faith in Jesus as your savior, know that Jesus is not a shot in the dark. He's not a wild gamble. He is the wise conclusion of history. And I want to invite you to set aside your presuppositions. And I want to invite you to study the person of Jesus.

17:28If Jesus is who he says he is, the only savior of the world, then you cannot afford to be wrong about him, but you have everything to gain by exploring him. And if you're a believer today and you do trust Jesus, then I want to invite you to saturate yourself this year in 2025 with the word of God. When I'm camping, I always like to have a little bit of fat wood on me. If you know what that is, it's a wood that is saturated with tree resin. And what it does, it's, it's highly flammable and it catches all the dead wood around it on fire. It's great for, for making fires. So what if in, in 2025, every person in this church was so saturated with the word of God that we lit little gospel fires in all the places that we work and play and live? What if that happened? See, the more time you spend in the word, the more you'll understand it, the more that you'll love it, the more that you'll crave it, the more you'll see connections everywhere, the more it'll pour out of you, church. So let, let 2025 be the year we're saturated in scripture. That's number three. Number four, our text shows us that Jesus is the author of salvation. Our text continues saying, and that he was declared to be the son of God in power, according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead through whom we have received grace. So a few moments ago, I said, if Jesus is who he said he is, you can't afford to be wrong about him. And that's true. But, but how do we know that he is truly God? How do we know that he's

19:09the Messiah given to the world to forgive sins? If the prophecies thing, isn't convincing to you being publicly executed, buried, and then coming back to life is a pretty compelling argument. I think it's pretty compelling. Paul says Jesus's power is proven by his resurrection. He ended his life being portrayed as a criminal. He was naked and bloodied and discarded by the people he came to save. But friends, I'm excited to say he did not stay that way. Amen. He died in weakness, but he rose in power. He's no longer the suffering servant. He's the victorious king who lives in power. And this is evidenced by the resurrection. In this, he's the author of salvation. He died for the sins of his people, but he did not stay dead. He didn't just defeat death for himself, but for all of those who come to him, his resurrection proves that he has defeated death for us as well, because Jesus is the author of salvation. He can bring the dead in sin to life in him. Praise God. That's why first Corinthians says, Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? It says the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. In John 14, 6, Jesus says, I am the way and I am the truth and I am the life. And no one comes to the father except through me. Friends, the sobering reality is that unless someone comes to Jesus, they will not experience freedom from death that sin brings.

21:01You and I need to be committed to the mission of the gospel in 2025. Why? Why? Because there are lost people all over Chester that need to hear the good news of the gospel. And thankfully, God does not call us to do this work alone. It's a weighty task, but one we don't do alone. Fifth truth. Jesus is our mission leader, which makes me think of star Wars. Need a better title for that. Romans one through five says this through whom we've received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith.

21:43Paul says he's been called and set apart for the work of an apostle to bring about the obedience of faith. This was the ministry of Paul amongst the Gentiles. He was called to be on mission by Jesus himself on the road to Damascus. Friends, Jesus calls you and I to this very same mission. Not as an apostle, that office was temporary in the church, but the mission is the same. Matthew 28, 18 through 20, Jesus tells the disciples before he ascends into heaven, he says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the Holy spirit and teaching them to observe all I've commanded you. Behold, I am always with you to the end of the age. And then Acts 1, 8, he's told, but you will receive power when the Holy scriptures come upon you. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria to the end of the earth. Church, this message is for us. So let you and I determine to be a people on mission.

22:55What does it look like for you to be on mission this year? All of us can take different steps of obedience in this direction. Maybe you need to be equipped on how to share your faith. You really don't know how you'd even go about telling someone about Jesus. Or maybe you've got that licked and you're good at that. But if you're honest, the desire just isn't there. You just are busy and you're tired and you just don't, you just don't feel the burden. Maybe something else is keeping you from doing that all together. But here's, here's what I'm certain of. We can all grow in this area. And if you want to grow and being an evangelist, then this church is a good place for you to be. You can get help growing and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Tell, tell pastor Joel, tell, tell me, tell your small group. Hey, I want to grow in this. I want people to know Jesus and I want to be obedient to the mission that God has called me on. See, Jesus is on mission in the world church. He's on mission right here in Chester. So let's you and I resolve to join him in it. Amen. That's number five. Last we see this. We didn't plan the songs this morning that way. I didn't plan the songs. Someone else did. God did. You'll see why in a second. Jesus is worthy. That's our last point from the text this morning. Romans 1, 5 through 7 says, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are being called to belong to Jesus

24:35Christ. To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. See, Paul reminds the church in Rome that the mission of the church is primarily for the sake of Jesus's name. Jesus is worthy of the obedience of his people. Jesus is worthy of the praise of all the world. Before the Christmas break in our youth gatherings, we've been studying Matthew 13, 44 through 46. And Jesus tells two quick parables there. He says, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. And then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and he buys that field. And then he says again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls who finding one pearl of great value went and sold all that he had and bought it. Friends, Jesus is the treasure in the field.

25:38Jesus is the pearl of great price. And so let his people praise him. John's gospel says, Jesus is the word who was with God in the beginning and is himself God and that all things are through him and for him. In Colossians, it says that he is the image of the invisible God that he rules over all things and in Jesus, all things hold together. Hebrews says he's the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power that he made purification for our sins. And he now sits in majesty high and lifted up. And Philippians says, he's highly exalted that his name is above every name so that every name, Jesus's name, his name, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the father and revelation tells us there is a day coming when all knees will bow and all tongues will confess that Jesus is King and Lord. He's worthy of praise.

26:51So let us praise him. I am under no illusion that 2024 was easy or that 2025 is going to be without heartbreak and sorrow, but he's worthy of praise. So let us praise him in the plenty. Let us praise him in the pain. Let us praise him when we're sad. Let us praise him in our joy. Let us praise him when we feel like at church. Let us praise him when we don't. Let us praise him with our words, church. But friends, more than anything, let us praise him with our actions. Let people, thank you, Jesus. Let people who come in contact with us have no other choice but to consider what it is about Jesus that causes his people to live the way that they do.

27:49He is for you. He is for you. He's for me. He's for our neighbors who don't know him. Our glorious King Jesus is proof that we are mightily loved by a mighty God. So let us praise him for the sake of his name.

28:10What you and I fix our eyes on this year matters. And there are a myriad of distractions. There is a multiplicity of things grabbing for our attention. Already, I know you felt it, that 2025 threatens to be defined and distracted by everything but Jesus. My desk mate Brian at Verizon worked diligently for an earthly company because his eyes were set on an earthly goal. How much more should you and I be motivated by the picture of Christ in Scripture? All friends, if it feels like a great sacrifice to follow Jesus with all that we have, as we sang this morning, know that it is. But it is a sacrifice worth your life.

29:06Everything that we pursue in an earthly manner will fall away, but our service to Christ will live forever. will you and I fix our eyes on Jesus in such a way that the picture of him is clear to those who live around us? Friends, let our answer be yes. And let us praise him with our lives. Amen.