Episode 220: Jesus, Jesus, Jesus; Is It Really All About Jesus? | Brian Morgan+

Introduction

Well, good morning. Great to see everybody this morning. Today is the last Sunday. We prayed out Will and Becky and their family about a month ago, and all their paperwork is together and they're getting ready to leave. So, are they here this morning? There they are right there. So, we are excited for them. We're sad to see them go, but we're also very excited. They're heading to Cambodia. So, on the way out, flood them with hugs and all those kinds of good things.

And what's interesting about missionaries is, and they'll figure this out, they're out in the field for a while, and then when they come back, it's often called a furlough. They come back and they kind of get some time to build relationships again. But one thing that is common among missionaries when they come back is they are often overwhelmed with the choices that we have. I was in a discussion about five or six years ago with some missionary friends of mine, and they said when they came back, they went to the grocery store aisle, and they literally got choked up when they saw all the options of cereal. At the first service, the Quashies were here, and we're excited, and they were sitting right over here, and I started this conversation, and they were like, oh, yes, you wouldn't believe all the options and how scary it is. We are bombarded with choice, options. What are we gonna choose?

Listen to these stats. 39,500 options at the regular grocery store. Walmart, in the brick-and-mortar stores, has 120,000 options. And just because it's everyday life for us, Amazon has 120,000,000 things for you to choose from. How do we know which one to choose and which one is the best one to pick?

The Main Question

Stephen Covey is a business executive and a life coach, and he has a very famous saying, you'll see it up on the screen. You know you've heard it before, and his job is to help people navigate how to be successful in life. And this is his phrase that many people have used over and over:

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

What is he saying? Figure out what is the most important, and then the most important thing you need to do is keep the most important thing the most important thing.

In a life full of thousands of choices and a buffet of what am I gonna do, he says, what is the main thing?

In the early 2000s, Starbucks figured this out. They made a huge mistake. They started all these stores, and they realized they were losing customers because they were focusing on stores and not on — oh, I set you all up, man. The first service did the same thing. They focused not on stores but they should focus on Coffee.

Coffee. That's right. So, you even said customers. That's right. What they said was, no, coffee. Coffee is our mission. Coffee is our main thing. The main thing for Starbucks was coffee. So, they shut down all these stores and they started their mission all over again.

Now, what about this one? This is one of your favorite restaurants, Taco Bell. They've come up with breakfast at Taco Bell. Now, I don't know for sure about you, but I think they're a little off their mission with breakfast at Taco Bell, but they partnered with Mountain Dew, and Mountain Dew has a breakfast drink. Anybody tried that? You're too embarrassed to raise your hand. Oh my gosh. There's not one hand. I love that. Okay. Oh, there's one hand. Good. Good job.

Clearly, if they are focusing on breakfast drinks, they're missing their mission because nobody raised their hand but one person.

The Main Thing for Life

What is the main thing? With so many options, if somebody was to ask you, what is your main thing? How would you answer? There's a lot of really important things in our life. There's a handful of medium important things. There's a huge amount of little important things. But if you had to answer, what would you say is your one main thing?

Let's pray.

Father, thank you this morning that you don't leave us alone to our own demise, that you seek after us. You give us the roadmap of scripture. We pray you'd bring it alive for us. Shoot it like a fiery arrow into our hearts, into our minds this morning. Help us, Holy Spirit, to see Jesus. In his name. Amen.

The Focus of Acts 4

So, we're continuing along in Acts chapter 4. I encourage you to open your Bible if you don't have one. There's one right in front of you. It's page 912. If you don't have a Bible, take that Bible home. We'd love for you to have it. We want you to be in there. We want you to be touching the pages. We want you to see the story of God in your life and in the history of the world.

And so, this morning, that's who we are. It's Acts chapter 4, page 912. And what we're doing is asking this question this summer: what were the early Christians doing? What were they saying? What were they teaching? What were they focusing upon? What were they seeing as the main thing in their life?

In Acts chapter 4, it begins to take a little bit of a turn. The turn is, they begin to get themselves in trouble because of what they were doing. They already had lots of trouble — that's what hung Jesus up on the cross was getting himself in trouble because of what he said he was and because of our sin. But here, it takes another turn.

And so, we have to ask: in the midst of the turn, in the midst of the conflict, what was their main thing that they were doing as these brand-new Christians?

You'll see up on the screen that Acts chapter 4 is broken down into three main parts. Verses 1 to 22, Peter and John go before the council. So they have this incredible healing in chapter 3, and then the religious leaders are upset, so they bring them in front and ask some questions: hey, what's going on? And why are you doing this? And what power are you doing this for?

Look at verse 10.

We can start at nine. If we are being examined, they're saying, Peter and John, if we're being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, and how this man may be healed, let it be known to you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by this man is standing before you well healed.

He's saying, look, we're before you, counsel. We're telling you, this is what happened. That's the first part of Acts 4.

Next, verses 23 to 31. They're released. They get back together with their friends, and they're celebrating, and they're praying for boldness. Can you imagine? They're probably going to be killed, and they're praying for boldness.

Look at verse 29.

And now, Lord, they pray, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness.

And at the end of the chapter, they gather together. They have everything in common.

See verse 34:

And there was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what they had sold together.

So, in Acts chapter 4, these three different movements. But what's the one thing we see happening in the chapter? What's the one theme, the one event, the one person over and over we see? It jumps out, and we're gonna look at it in just a minute.

But what do you think it is? What's the one main thing in Acts 4?

It's gonna sound just like a Hallmark card. It's Jesus. It’s a great Sunday school answer, ain't it? But the problem is, it is what is exactly happening in Acts 4. You can go to the next slide.

You see it nine times in this chapter: Jesus is the main thing. He is the focal point. He is the one they are talking about, the one they're getting trouble for. They are the ones he's the one they are celebrating.

You can go to the next slide. I have it in yellow just in case we miss it.

Verse 2, teaching and proclaiming Jesus.
Verse 10, by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Verse 11, this Jesus, the cornerstone, the one you think is worth nothing. He's the cornerstone.
Verse 12, no other name but the name of Jesus.
Verse 13, ordinary men had been with Jesus.
We'll look at that in a minute.
Verses 17-18, charged him not to speak in the name of what? In the name of Jesus.
Verse 27, gathered together against God's holy servant, Jesus.
Verse 30, you see it again in 33.

Over and over, for these first-century disciples, our mission here is healthy disciples making healthy disciples in Jesus. The disciples figured out — listen — the whole mission, the whole reason we're here because it's about Jesus. Their main thing was Jesus.

Now, just in case you think they were perfect, they had it all together — of course, they would answer — but let me encourage you: they were people just like you and me. They wrestled with difficult things. They weren't sure what was gonna happen. Heck, at the last moment, they all ran from Jesus.

They could have focused on a few other things. They could have focused on a building. The temple was there. They went back to the temple and worshiped the temple. They could have said, yeah, Jesus is important, but it's really about this building, the temple. They could have gone and built a building. I mean, we're only a few weeks in, but they could have thrown something together and said, hey, let's gather in this little hut and make it about that.

They didn't make it about that. They could have made it about religion. I mean, for this long journey, Jesus says, I've come to fulfill all the prophets — all the testimonies of the Old Testament. Old Testament speak to me, and I'm gonna fulfill this. And then the religious leaders are mad all the way through, and they could have said, hey, listen, we're gonna go back. We saw Jesus come back, and now we're gonna focus on being good religious people.

They didn't focus on that. They could have focused on the Romans. They were hoping and praying, Jesus, we know, you say you're gonna come back, but come back and then take out the Romans. But they didn't focus on that.

The main thing for them, as brand-new Christians, as the beginning stages of the church, was the person of Jesus.

Application

Now, what about you and me? What are other things that we focus on in Christianity and not Jesus? If you're here this morning and maybe you're a Christian, you're saying, look, I'm not a Christian. I'm still checking this stuff out. Maybe you're visiting. Maybe you're here for the first time. We're glad you're here. Maybe you've been here a long time, and you're saying, I'm still not a Christian. I'm checking it out. You guys seem semi-normal, so I keep coming back for some reason.

If that's you, let me ask you: be weary if you go somewhere, including us, and Jesus is not the centerpiece of what we say and do. If you go to another church and they talk about something else higher and greater than Jesus, be skeptical.

So, what do we focus on other than Jesus as Christians?

Number one, we love focusing on religion. I want to do good and I want to be good. That's religion, folks. Are we focusing on that? Quigg says it often: the do-good, be-good doesn't last all that long. You know, the old joke is, Lord, it's been a great day, and I'm so thankful for the day ahead, and I haven't sinned yet, but when I put my feet on the ground out of bed, things are gonna change.

It's very true, isn't it? Are you focusing on religion instead of Jesus? Are you focusing on church instead of Jesus? Are you saying, you know, that check-in downstairs at the children's ministry is just too long, and it's just, you know, they're not very organized? Or do you say, you know, that worship leader, you know, those songs are too slow? Or next week, those songs he did, they're too fast? Or are you focusing on this? True. It's too cold in there.

Right? True story: five minutes later, they'll come to Quigg or me and say, it's too hot in there. It's too hot in the sanctuary. They talk too much about the Bible. They talk too much about Jesus. Do we focus on church above Jesus? Or how about this one? This is mine: is your Christianity about you? God help me. God save me. God get me out of this difficult thing I'm in. God answer this prayer for me, for my sake, for my family's sake.

What are you and I focusing on instead of Jesus? What is the main thing for you and your Christian walk?

How They Stayed Focused on Jesus

So, let's dive back in. Look at Acts chapter 4. Why were they able to keep Jesus as the main thing? I think there's five things. You can go to the next slide.

There are five things that we see in the passage. I put them all on one screen so we can see them all really succinctly.

Number one: They had seen Jesus die and come back to life, and they couldn't deny it.

In verses 10 and 11, they're saying, "Look, we can't deny what we saw to be true." They had rubbed shoulders with Jesus. They had been with him. They had heard from him. They had talked to him. Folks, if we want Jesus to be our main thing, we gotta rub shoulders with him. He's alive. He's personal. He's intimate. If you're not spending time with him and getting to know him, there's no way he's gonna be your main thing. It's impossible. That's what they had done. They had seen him. They had been with him. That's why he was their main thing.

Number two: This Jesus was promised long ago in the Old Testament scriptures, and it spoke of him.

You see in the Old Testament passage, they said, the builder — let's go to verse 11.

This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.

They are pointing back to the Psalms. The Psalms have said, "There's gonna be a cornerstone that's gonna be rejected, but it will be the stone that all those who have new life will be grounded on him." They said, "Look, we see that Jesus has fulfilled all those scriptures. We can't shake it." How do you shake it when you see him fulfill them?

Number three: They had seen the incredible miracles. God the Father stretching out his hand through Jesus and bringing healing.

That's the whole thing about chapter 3. That's the whole reason they're in trouble in chapter 4. The guy had been healed. They couldn't deny it. And they said, "Look, we have seen the healings, and it's Jesus who did it."

Number four: They had been changed.

See verse 13. I love this. "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John," the religious leaders, the ones who were ticked off questioning them, "then we saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men. They were astonished, and they recognized that they had been with Jesus."

Why were they able to keep Jesus the main thing above everything else in their life? They had spent time. They were changed by Jesus. They were different people, and the world was recognizing it.

Goes back to number one. If we don't spend time with Him, we won't be changed.

And number five: They were filled regularly, afresh and anew, with the Holy Spirit.

Look at verse 8; you see it twice in this chapter. "Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them," so they are on trial. The Spirit fills them, and he speaks this little teaching — a sermon. And then you see it again in verse 31. "And they prayed for boldness. The place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness."

So, five things that help them to keep Jesus as their main focus. They had seen Jesus, the scriptures spoke of Jesus and they understood it, they had seen miracles through Jesus, God the Father through him. They were changed, and they were regularly being filled.

Why We Struggle with Making Jesus Main

So, what is our why? Why can't we seem to have Jesus as the main thing in our life? Why do we wrestle so much to make the main thing the main thing? Jesus, Jesus, Jesus — is it really all about Jesus? The answer is yes.

And why can't we figure that out? I think there are two main reasons.

Number one: there are too many things and people calling for our allegiance.

Dallas Willard, the great teacher and author, says it this way:

There's nothing else. Hurry is the great enemy of the spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.

If you want Jesus to be the main thing, if you want to figure out how to have Him as the very thing in your life above everything else, we gotta get hurry out of our life. We are addicted to busyness and hurriedness, to-do lists, getting it done, then trying to figure out how to get it done when we can't.

Cory Timboon says, "If the devil can't make you sin, he'll make you busy." Does that ring true?

In 2008, a study of 20,000 Christians around the world identified that busyness was the major distraction in their spiritual life. What they found was this: Christians are assimilating to the culture of busyness around them. God becomes marginalized, their relationship with God deteriorates, and they spiral into more busyness.

There's a study done in 2016 of iPhone users. Don't worry, Android people, I'm gonna throw you under the bus too in a minute. Raise your hand if you're an iPhone user.

Most of you. Fantastic.

This is what they found: in 2016, iPhone users touch their phone around 2,600 times a day. Two thousand six hundred times a day. We are touching our phones constantly. And just in case you're an Android user, which I am, it says all cell phone users touch or use their phones about 2 hours and 30 minutes daily.

So, what is the big distraction of why we can't have Jesus as the main thing? It's because we are too busy. And the world is feeding it, and we are chewing it, and we are swallowing it.

But that's not the real problem. That's not the real issue.

Sociologists call the real problem expressive individualism. You be you. Be true to yourself. Follow your heart. Find yourself.

My friends, that is the real problem. And sociologists have named it. They give it a name: expressive individualism.

You be true to you. How's that worked in your life? Have you found your true self? Have you been searching for years and years and years? Where has it led you?

I mean, that's the pinnacle of a Disney movie: find your true self — it's all gonna work out.

Listen, it hasn't worked out well for me, I'm not sure about you. Finding my true self has led me down roads I don't want to go down. Are you down those roads? I know I am, because we all do it.

Arthur Laval Levin describes it this way:

Expressive individualism is that term that suggests not only a desire to pursue one's own path but also a yearning for fulfillment through the definition and articulation of our own identity. I'm gonna find the path that's right for me, and I'm gonna identify myself the way I want to.

That's expressive individualism. It's a drive both to be more like whatever you already are, and to live in a society that asserts you should become that way. The capacity of individuals to define the terms of their own existence by defining their personal identities.

Sociologists call it expressive individualism; theologians call it sin.

I wanna be my own main thing. Folks, that's the problem why we can't have Jesus be the main thing above everything else: because we want to be the main thing. We want life to be about us.

I love being my own hero. You be you — I'm gonna be me; I can solve my own problems; I can do it all. When I find my true self, it's gonna work out great.

Is that what we are created for? If the main thing is to be the main thing, let me ask you: how is it working for you when you are the main hero of your life?

The Path Forward

So, where does that leave us? In a world that says, you make it about you. A world that says, just keep being busy, you'll figure it out long-term, you really will. Try harder, faster, quicker.

In a world of 12 million options, after church, you'll go to Kroger and there’s 39,000 things asking you to invest in.

Where does that leave us? How do we get out from underneath this? How do we establish a main thing about a main thing about a main thing when we realize the main thing we’ve been putting there is just doing, but it's destroying us?

Who's gonna rescue us? Where are we gonna go?

The night is too dark, our little inner light isn't bright enough. Is your little light bright enough to shine the path for you? It's not.

I encourage you to explore it, and you'll realize it's not that bright. Your battery's gonna run out.

Who's stronger than your weakness? Who can overcome the cavern you're lost in? Who will defeat the sin that has won over us? Who will cut the chains that hold you prisoner?

Every Sunday morning, we have an opportunity to respond at the rails. Please stand this morning. We have the rails open this morning to celebrate the One who can cut us free, to celebrate the One who's died in our place because we are prisoners. We are not the main thing of our life. It does not work out well when we are.

So, prayer teams, if you're on the prayer team today, the straight rails are for somebody to pray with you. The rounded rails are for you to come pray by yourself.

Are you tired of being the main thing in your life? Do you know you need another hero? And it's not you?

Let's pray.

Father, thank you that you send one in our path, in our way. You send one that meets us when we're lost and we don't know which way to go.

And so, we celebrate this morning: Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.

Open our eyes this morning, Lord Jesus. Help us to see and to know you as the main thing. The Good Shepherd, the river that will never run dry, the food that will never leave us hungry.