What’s The Point?

In the Spring of 1985, Coca-Cola took a big risk.  At the time they were steadily loosing ground to Pepsi.  So they went back to the drawing board and brought in a consultant who encouraged them to reconsider what was at the core of their mission.  He drew a box on a white board and asked them to come up with one word that would describe what Cocoa-Cola was all about.  After a brief brainstorming time, it was clear.  The one word: “Taste.”

So the team at Cocoa-cola figured the one way to recapture the market was to come up with a better taste.  With a better taste, they would derail Pepsi and regain their place at the top of the soft drink empire.  So what happened?  Do you remember?  They came up with a new product:  New Coke.

However, the public’s reaction was not what they expected.  Rather than embrace New Coke, they hated it and quickly began stockpiling old Coke. Well, the leadership began to panic.  This new marketing campaign was an epic failure.  They went back to the drawing board, erased the word “taste” and replaced it with a new word: “tradition.”  They immediately launched “Coca-Cola Classic.”  Sales skyrocketed and they reclaimed their place as the king of the soft-drink world.

Now, Churches often do the same thing as Coca-Cola did.  They look at where they’ve been and where they need to go.  Sometimes they hire a consultant to help them re-evaluate their mission, their focus and what they need to do.  They take a white board and do the same thing – asking: What’s the Church all about? What’s the point of our existence?  What one word best describes our mission?

Well, I believe there’s one word that fits beautifully into our box: Jesus!    From the very beginning Christianity has always been a movement about Jesus.  Christianity didn’t begin in a church building or a Bible study.  It was born in the hearts of men and women who put their trust in a man who walked out of an empty tomb after laying down His life for our sins.  From the very the beginning, the Christian faith was all about Jesus – about knowing him, trusting him, following him, and proclaiming Him.  That is why Rock Springs will always be a church about Jesus, and why our mission will never change.

For God has called us to be People who are Helping People become Friends, Family and Followers of Jesus.   Jesus is why we exist.  And we want people to experience the grace of Jesus, the power of Jesus and the life of Jesus.  So as we step into the first Sunday of 2020 today, I felt rather than exhorting us to a 2020 vision, I really believe God wants us to focus on all we have in Jesus.  Now I can’t do all that in one message, but I can share three reasons why Jesus is everything to us. And the first reason is this:

Jesus is Savior!  Look at how Titus describes Jesus in Titus chapter 3, But when the kindness and love of Godour Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.  He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.  Titus 3:4-7

Jesus is our Savior. He is the personification of the kindness and love of God.  He came to do for us what we could not do for ourselves.  Oh were pretty good at looking at everything but Jesus to save us.  Without even realizing it we can look to another relationship, money, marriage, esteem, career or power to save us – something that might seem to be the answer to our problems.  But none of those things can ever truly save us.  There is only One Savior who came to rescue you from destruction.  Jesus.  Jesus is our rescuer, redeemer and deliverer.  When He came, He came to die in your place so He might forgive you of all your sin and restore your relationship with God. Jesus did for us what we could not do for ourselves.  As God’s Word so clearly states: For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing; it is a gift of God, not the result of our works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8-9  Jesus is the only one who can remove your sin.  Jesus is the only one who can rescue you from destruction.  Jesus is the only one who can bring you to God.

But sometimes we need to ask: What does Jesus save us from?   Titus tells us that God saved us out of His mercy.  Which means that Jesus saves you from judgment.  When you put your trust in Jesus as Savior, Jesus removes all your sin and gives you all His righteousness.  He makes you spotless and pure and removes all condemnation.

Jesus also saves you from eternal separation from God.  If you can imagine what it is like to be completely alone, alienated from all that is good, cast into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth out of the regret of turning your back on God – you would get a small sense of what Jesus saves you from. So Jesus saves you from eternal separation from the One who created you and has always loved you. But Jesus saves you from even more than all that.  For when Jesus saves you, he delivers you from the dominion of darkness; from the deceit of Satan, from a life of confusion and a life without meaning or purpose.  Out of His kindness and love God sent Jesus to save you from all that is evil in this present age.  So Jesus has come to save you from your guilt, your shame and your fear.  He came to rescue you and set you free.  This is our Jesus, our Savior.  This is the message of good news that we get to proclaim, for anyone who trusts in Jesus will be saved from all!  What a Savior. But what is even better than what Jesus saved us from, is what He saved us for.

What does Jesus save us for?   Jesus saves you for a relationship with God.  His salvation reconciled you to God – made peace between you and God.  The moment you put your faith in Jesus you were completely accepted by God, fully approved by God.   As a result you can know God as your loving heavenly Father – a Father who is always for you, never against you. A Father who has given you access into His presence whenever you want it.  A Father who sees you as the apple of His eye.  A Father who sees you as His beloved child, for He has adopted you as His very own.  This is what Jesus saves you for – for a new life with the One who knit your together in your mother’s womb and knows you better than you know yourself.   Jesus saves you for a new life with Him who loves you.  What a Savior.

So let me ask you:  Is Jesus your Savior?  Have you put your trust in Him?  Have you let Him rescue you from your sin, take away your judgment, and be reconciled to the Father who loves you? If you’ve never put your trust in Jesus as your Savior, then there is no greater thing you can ever do.  This is why we exist as God’s people, to point everyone to Jesus, the Savior, who takes away the sin of the world.  Jesus is the Savior.

The Second reason why Jesus is the point, is simple: Jesus is Lord!  In Romans 14, Paul declares this truth about Jesus: If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord.  So, whether we live or we die, we belong to the Lord. 14:8  This is as clear a life mission statement as they come.  As great as it is to know Jesus as Savior, its even better when you realize that He is Lord.

Now some people get thrown off here when it comes to trusting in Jesus as Lord.  For if Jesus is Lord, that means He has all power and authority.  It means you are trusting Him to lead your life, to call the shots, to have you surrender your will to His will.  That’s hard for us.  We like to be in charge.  And in our world today, it seems that whoever is in the place of authority tends to abuse authority.  But that’s not Jesus.  Jesus is a good Lord, a benevolent Lord.  Listen to how the Psalmist describes our Lord: He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind,
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Psalm 146:7-10

Jesus as Lord gives life purpose.  When Jesus is Lord you will have assurance that He will always be there for you.  When Jesus is Lord He will give you His heart for the less fortunate.  When Jesus is Lord, you will have someone you can trust in the difficulties of life.  But for Jesus to be you Lord means you will want to follow.  You will want to offer your life to Him, so you can walk with Him and learn from Him to live and love like Him.  This is at the core of our mission as a church, and why we exist. Not just to be saved by Jesus, but to be surrendered to Jesus.

Like I said before, this is not always the easiest thing to do. But there has never been a Lord like Jesus.  He is the kind master who says,  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  Matthew 11:28-30

This is who we want to help people follow: Jesus, who gently instructs, graciously leads and ultimately transforms you so He can live His life through you.

That’s the second reason why Jesus is the point, why we are never satisfied with just worshiping Him.  We want to follow Him and help others know Him too. Jesus didn’t die for you just to get you into heaven.  Jesus gave His all for you so you might go all in with Him.

So Jesus is Savior, Jesus is Lord, and finally, Jesus is Life! It was Jesus who said: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. John 10:10  If there is one universal truth that captures us all – is that we love life.  We don’t want to simply exist, just get by, eat, breath and sleep and then do it again.  No we want our lives to mean something.  We want to know and be known.  We want to love and be loved.  But even more than that, we have a craving for life that’s characterized by kindness, mercy, goodness and peace.  We’ve grown weary of our increasingly jaded and angry culture, so that when we hear Jesus say, The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, it seems like that’s all we hear or see in the news anymore…   But when Jesus says, I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. John 10:10 that’s the kind of good news that give us hope.  Because that’s the kind of life we long for.

You see, Jesus is life.  And the Bible tells us that Jesus is the Creator of life, the sustainer of life and the giver of life –  all life comes from Him, is held together by Him and is found in Him.  Jesus couldn’t have said it any clearer when he said this: “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3 Eternal life isn’t just life in the here after – its life where you can know and be known by the very One who gave you all your longings for life.  For In Him is life.

He is the bread of life, the light of life, the resurrection and the life.  And because He walked out of that tomb 2000 years ago, He lives today and wants to give you this life: this eternal life, abundant and satisfying life that’s found in Him.

That is why Jesus will always be the core of our life together as Rock Springs Church.  Jesus has come that you may have life and have it to the full.  And all it takes for you to receive this life is to believe in His name.  Jesus is Savior.  Jesus is Lord and Jesus is Life.

And now, because Jesus lives, you can have a forgiven life, a meaningful and eternal life when you trust in Him.  This is the Jesus we want to help you know.  This is the Jesus we want to help you follow.  For this is the Jesus we believe in and who gives us life.  May you come to know and believe in His name with us.