Is it possible that you have walked away from Jesus, not because you have tried him and want nothing to do with him, but because somewhere along the line you developed a view of Jesus that is contrary to the Jesus of the gospels?
Are some of you here today claiming to follow Jesus but you are following a Jesus who has been altered and adapted to conveniently fit into your life. A Jesus that doesn’t really challenge you, agrees with your life decisions, hates all the same people you hate, really wants you to do what makes you happy, and is thus nothing like the Jesus of the gospels.
Who do you say that Jesus is?
If this story is not yours, are you willing to investigate Jesus? To come along with us and bring your questions, concerns, objections, and doubts as we rediscover Jesus together?
If this story is yours, are you ready to put down your domesticated Jesus, your customized Jesus, your echo chamber Jesus, and surrender your life to the real Jesus?
All of us must take a side, so to speak, when it comes to Jesus. What I pray is that we would all come to side ourselves with the one who came to side with us. The one who entered our world physically, was witnessed empirically, lived perfectly, died sacrificially, and rose victoriously so that we might be made new.
Who do you say that Jesus is?
The Real Jesus
Luke 1:1-4
January 5, 2020
Reid Kapple
From Series: "Rediscovering Jesus - Olathe Campus"
Jesus of Nazareth. There have been no shortage of opinions offered, books written, responses given to who Jesus was. Some worshipped Him as God. Others thought Him a criminal. The controversy surrounding Jesus followed Him through His life, and it has continued 2,000 years after His death. There is no masking Jesus’ enormous influence on human history.
In the midst of all this noise, who was Jesus? Why is He so important to human history? Is Jesus simply someone who agrees, confirms, and approves of everything we already thought and believed?
A few decades after the death of Jesus, a man named Luke was wrestling with those questions with his friend, a friend uncertain as to who Jesus was. So Luke set about rediscovering Jesus. He asked Jesus’ friends, he listened to Jesus’ enemies, and worked hard to give us the account of just who Jesus really was.
Luke was convinced Jesus had good news for us. Life changing news. Rest for the anxious. Healing for the broken. Freedom for the trapped. Luke rediscovered Jesus.
He wrote about Jesus, so that we could rediscover Jesus.
