Who Jesus is to You

Kylen Perry: All right, Porch. How are we doing tonight? Are we doing okay? Great to see you. Man, I love the energy. Welcome. It's so good to be with you this Tuesday night. Not just those of you here in the room. It is always a joy to see you here, but also, everyone who's tuning in online. Thanks, everybody, here and there, just for making time to be a part of what God is doing.

We just came out of a worship set that was really powerful, and it's not just because we have talented people up here or because the band sounds awesome or they got the PA tuned in perfectly. The reason it's powerful is because the presence of God delights to meet with his people. He delights to meet with you. So, I hope, if you haven't experienced that already, you can expect that for yourself tonight, because that is absolutely what he wants. Davy said it. We choose him in response to him choosing us.

So, are you going to choose him tonight? That's the question on the table for you. To help you get to that place, we have a very special friend who's going to be teaching the Word of God to us. I could not be more excited to introduce this person to The Porch for the first time. He is one of the humblest men I know, genuinely. If you spend any time around him, you know he delights to lower himself so that he might lift Christ on high.

He is one of the most trusted voices I know. He is revered for the wisdom he offers in rooms. Oftentimes, when he speaks, the conversation just kind of concludes because that was the right thing we were all waiting to hear. And he faithfully serves as the executive director of discipleship here at Watermark Community Church. So, Porch, would you do a really good job of helping me welcome, for the very first time, Dave Bruskas to the stage?

Dave Bruskas: Hey, friends, great to be with you tonight. Tonight has already been meaningful to me, just our time of worship together. I found myself tearing up, being emotional. I don't know how I'm going to get through tonight, but I am glad to be with you.

I was on a road trip years ago with my dear friend Randy. Randy brought his 8-year-old son Truett with us. Truett was in the back seat. We had a dual-cab pickup truck, and Truett was obsessed with Pokémon. Has anybody been there before? It's okay to come clean tonight. Truett had a three-ring binder with plastic dividers of every Pokémon card he collected, and he began to run me through every character's strengths, weaknesses, and uniqueness.

I learned all about Pikachu, and I learned all about Psyduck, and I learned all about Snorlax. How cool is it that you could change the world just by sleeping? My favorite is Snorlax. So, we went through the characters, but Truett's presentation began to lag a little bit, and we were now in 30 minutes of him talking nonstop.

Finally, his dad looked back at him and said, "Hey, Son, listen. I'm not so sure that Pastor Dave is as interested in Pokémon as you are. Why don't we wrap this thing up." Truett looked defeated, he looked angry, and he also looked determined. He said, "Dad, you give me 30 more minutes with Pastor Dave, and I promise you he will love Pokémon every bit as much as I do."

So, here's the deal tonight. Kylen gave me free rein to talk about anything I wanted to talk about, so I have chosen my favorite passage in all of Scripture, and if you give me the next 30 minutes, I'm pretty confident that it will become your favorite passage of Scripture as well. If you have a Bible, turn with me to Colossians, chapter 1. We're going to look at verses 15-20.

I think these verses are so critically important because they answer what I think is the most important question a Christian can answer, which is…Who is Jesus to us? So, that's what I want to talk about tonight as we look at this text. I want to answer the question through the lens of this passage of Scripture…Who is Jesus to us? After we come to that answer, I want to give you one specific action item. I'm so glad to be with you. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for tonight. Thank you for everyone who's in the room here in Dallas. Thank you for all those who are joining us online. Father, we know that according to Jesus there's no one in this space who's here by accident tonight, because, Father, you are seeking worshipers who will worship you in spirit and truth.

Tonight is not so much about us getting ourselves here; it's you bringing us here that we might experience the joy of your presence, of knowing you, of worshiping you. Father, I pray, as we open up the Bible tonight, through your Holy Spirit you would open up our eyes in a fresh way to who Jesus is, that we would see him clearly. Father, you know our tendency to downsize Jesus, to make him smaller so he fits into our lives, to make him in our own image.

I pray you would break apart all of the things we've constructed that are false tonight, and I pray that we would see Jesus as he truly is. Holy Spirit, I pray, if there's anyone in this room tonight or anyone joining us online who doesn't yet know Jesus, that you would arrange an introduction, that lives would forever be changed, and that Jesus would be worshiped and glorified. In his good name we pray together, amen.

Colossians 1. We're going to jump right into verse 15. Simple question tonight…Who is Jesus to us? Here we go. "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together."

I wish we could take these first few verses and spend hours unpacking them, because they're so rich with meaning, but I want to highlight a couple of things as we get started. The first thing I want you to see as we speak of Jesus (he's the he we're referring to here) is he is the image of the invisible God. If we were to look at the original language of the New Testament, you would recognize this word, because it is the word we use for icon. Jesus is the icon of the invisible God.

Now, when we think of icon… Think of the most iconic image you can come up with. An icon can do one of two things. An icon can be a representation of something or, in the biblical sense, it can be a manifestation of something. Here's what Scripture is telling us. When you and I look into the face of Jesus, we see far more than just a representation of God; we see the very face of God itself.

I don't know if you did this during the pandemic. Some of you might not have been old enough back then to, but I binge-watched… I was so bored. I binge-watched so much TV. Now, my wife Kara loves musicals, and because I love Kara, I have to love musicals as well. I had wanted to take her to see Hamilton at Fair Park, but everything shut down in the pandemic.

We had binge-watched everything we could binge-watch, and I thought, "Okay. I'm going to splurge. I'm going to break my budget. I'm going to go ahead and buy the Disney Channel, and we are going to watch the musical Hamilton." It was a great musical. You should see it if you haven't seen it yet.

As I was watching Hamilton, I would tell you I saw an icon, an image, of Alexander Hamilton. Now, what I didn't see was a manifestation of Alexander Hamilton. What I saw was a representation. Lin-Manuel Miranda did a beautiful job of representing Alexander Hamilton, but I didn't see a manifestation of him.

The only way I could have seen a manifestation of Alexander Hamilton is had his eternal spirit somehow been embodied in Lin-Manuel Miranda's body, then I would have said I could see Alexander Hamilton. God is a triune God. The God of the Bible is three persons, one God, coeternal, co-worthy of worship, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God the Son took on human form. His name is Jesus. When you and I look into the face of Jesus, we see the very face of God.

Not only is Jesus the image of the invisible God, but I want you to see the next thing it says about him. He is the firstborn of all creation. Does that seem confusing to you? Do you think for a second, "Wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait. Dave, if Jesus is eternally God, then how can he be firstborn? How can he be connected to creation in any way?"

Well, if you look at the context of this passage, you'll understand that Jesus is not a creature; he's Creator. The text has already told us that everything that exists…visible, invisible, things in heaven, things on the earth…were created by Jesus through Jesus and ultimately are for Jesus. When we use the term firstborn, what we mean is he's not just first in sequence; he's first in significance.

We see this in the Bible. Right? You read those Old Testament stories, and there's this weight of value that's placed on firstborn animals and firstborn children. Any firstborns in the room? Raise your hand. All right. Congratulations. According to the Bible, you're more significant than the siblings who came after you.

I have one little brother. I love to bring this up to him all the time. "Hey, man. How are you doing? I just want to remind you I'm the firstborn, and if we really want to be biblical, we should hope that Mom and Dad take the inheritance, split it three ways, and I get two shares and you get one, because that's the way things should be if Mom and Dad are going to follow Jesus through the Bible." When he gets angry, I just tell him, "Hey, man. Don't be a hater. I'm just the messenger. I'm just telling you what the truth is."

Jesus is more significant than the entirety of creation. He's the agent of creation, because everything that exists, everything we see and everything we don't see that we know exists in our world, was created by Jesus through Jesus and ultimately exists for Jesus. There's this last phrase I want to get to that's so important here. Look at it with me again. Verse 17: "And he is before all things, and in him all things…" Not a few things. Not most things. All things hold together in him. He holds all things together.

What does that mean? It means Jesus is the fabric that gives meaning to everything that exists. Jesus gives meaning to everything. Everything has meaning inasmuch as it relates to Jesus. Jesus is the single thread of meaning for everything that exists visibly and invisibly. So, if we go back to our question that we began with…Who is Jesus to us…this is the first thing I want you to think about:

1. Jesus is our meaning. Do you ever look around the world, around your neighborhood, around your workplace, or around your classroom and think, "I can't make sense of this. It's really hard to piece together significance and meaning based on what I see"? The reason for that is nothing makes sense apart from Jesus.

If you're here tonight, and you're not a Christian, and you're saying, "I can't make sense of what's going on around me," that makes sense according to the Bible, because the only way the world and everything in it makes sense is in relationship to Jesus. Jesus holds all things together. Meaning, Jesus gives meaning and significance to all things.

I want you to understand this clearly about the Bible. The Bible isn't a collection of countless stories; it's one story. The Bible isn't a thousand principles to live by; it's one person to live for. His name is Jesus. The Bible is a story in four acts featuring one character. It's as simple as that. The feature character of the Bible… It's not the story of you and me; it's the story of Jesus.

Here are the four acts. The first act is creation. God created the world through Jesus, and when he had finished creation, he declared "This is good." He made humankind to live in relationship with him, to worship him and enjoy him forever, and everything got off to a great start. But before we even get past the third chapter of Genesis, everything comes undone.

Our common parents, Adam and Eve, rebelled against God. They did the very thing God said they couldn't do, and because of their sin, their treason, their rebellion, everything is corrupted. Everything is broken. That's chapter 2 of the Bible. The first chapter is creation; the second chapter is fall. Humankind and the world around us is fallen. It's broken.

But here comes the third chapter. This is when the story really starts to get good. God in his mercy, God in his patience, God in his kindness, God for the sake of his glory sends his Son Jesus on a rescue mission. Jesus takes on human form. He lives the perfect life that no one else can live. He goes to the cross, and there he dies a brutal, painful, God-forsaken death, the death you and I deserve to die. He's put in the grave.

But, friends, here's the good news tonight: You're not going to ever find the bones of Jesus. He has risen from the grave, physically, bodily. He's at the right hand of God the Father. One day he'll come, and he'll rule and reign forever. As we enter into this third chapter, the chapter that you and I find ourselves living in today, it's the chapter of redemption.

Do you know what God is doing in the world? God is drawing together a people for himself, a people from every tongue and every tribe, redeeming a people for himself, promising to forgive them of their sin, free them from their sin, live life with them, and ultimately look forward to the fourth chapter, which is still in front of us. We're not there yet. It's the chapter of restoration or recreation.

The day will come when God will restore all things, and you and I, as followers of Jesus, will be with him forever. There will be no more sin. There will be no more suffering. There will be no more death. But, friends, today we find ourselves in chapter 3. If you're here tonight, even as a follower of Jesus, perhaps especially as a follower of Jesus, and you're thinking, "Life is hard," you're right. We haven't entered into chapter 4 yet.

Jesus has forgiven us. Jesus has come to live in us through the Holy Spirit, and he is not only forgiving us from sin and rebellion and brokenness; he's freeing us from it. But we're not entirely there yet. We're going to sin. We're going to experience suffering. We're going to live in a world that's broken, yet God promises never to leave us or forsake us. He's going to be with us. We will be his people, and he will be our God, and together we'll walk toward the fourth chapter, anticipating with hope the day when Jesus returns and makes everything right. Until then, it's going to be hard.

Is your life hard tonight? Are you struggling tonight? Do you find yourself in a season of suffering, perhaps? Perhaps a season of fighting sin, and you just feel like you're not gaining any ground? I have four daughters. My wife and I have been married for 38 years come this December. We have four daughters, four sons-in-law, and now eight grandkids. I love them dearly.

Our youngest daughter, who's here tonight, was diagnosed at 20 years old with stage 4 lymphoma. It was devastating. The good news from the doctors was "This is a treatable form of cancer." The tough news was "It's going to be hard treatment to get better." So, she began chemotherapy. Perhaps some of you in the room have had a similar diagnosis. Maybe you've suffered through cancer.

I'll never forget the first day we took Jillian to her chemotherapy appointment. She went into this large room, and she was the youngest person in the room. The room was filled with people who looked very sick. Everyone caught her eye because they thought to themselves, "Why is a person that young in this room?"

She got hooked up to her chemotherapy treatment, and she sat there for a few hours. As we left, she physically looked different than when she walked into the room. Her skin tone had changed. Her countenance had changed. We went home. I know my little girl well. When she's not feeling well, she's just going to sleep it off. I know even when she's depressed and sad, she's going to sleep out her feelings.

So, she goes to her room. Kara and I are sitting there at the table, and we're just overwhelmed by what she's experiencing. I'm thinking through, "Lord, how do I make sense of this? Jesus, I know you love us. I know you're with us. I know we're in the third chapter. There's a fourth chapter to come. I know this is a time of redemption. The time of restoration isn't here yet. But would you please help my little girl?"

Then I began to think back about all of the times I failed as a dad. While she was lying in bed, suffering from the effects of chemotherapy, and fighting cancer, I began to think, "I hope my voice isn't rattling around in her head, saying, 'Hey, suck it up. Do more. Try harder. Tough it out. You can do this.'"

I remember praying, "Lord, I know in this chapter of the story of the Bible you promised to be with your people. You promised to minister to your people." I said, "Father in heaven, would you please overcome my deficiencies and my failures of my little girl, and would you care for her in ways that I can't?"

A few hours later, she emerged from her room. We had a quiet dinner together. She wasn't feeling well. Her appetite wasn't there. She kind of picked over her food. There wasn't much to say. Right before we finished the meal, she said very casually, matter-of-factly, "Oh, God spoke to me." We were like, "Wait, what?" Like, "That deserves a better introduction, but please tell us what it was he told you."

She said, "I was right in that place when you wake up and have been asleep for a while, and as soon as I woke up, I heard this voice that said, 'My daughter.'" She said, "Dad, I looked around the room, thinking that must be you, because you're the one who calls me that. I looked around the room, and there was no one there, so I think the Father was reminding me that I belong to him and he is with me in the midst of this suffering."

Friends, that's the meaning that Jesus gives life. All of life, the good things, the bad things, the in-between things, the things that are visible and invisible, every experience you have, all of who you are, all of your thoughts, all of your feelings, all of your words, all of your actions, and all of your relationships have meaning inasmuch as they relate to Jesus. Jesus is our meaning, which raises the question for us tonight…Are we living meaningful lives? Are we understanding and viewing the life God has assigned us to live through the meaning we have in Jesus? I want that for you tonight. I want that for us tonight.

Let's go back to Colossians. Who is Jesus to us? Verse 18: "And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent." I love that statement about Jesus. Jesus has done something no one else has ever done in the history of the world. Jesus has risen from the dead. Because Jesus has risen from the dead, he has manifested and claimed his victory over death and sin and Satan, and by doing so, he is preeminent in all things.

He's the head of the church. Every church in our city, in our state, in our country, and around the world that loves Jesus, if they had an org chart, guess who would be at the top of that org chart: Jesus. Why? Because it's his church. It's not yours, it's not mine; it's his. We are his people. He deserves the top space. He is preeminent in everything. He is first. He is foremost. He is supreme. That's who Jesus is.

2. Jesus is our mission. Now, let me explain that, because I know some of you are going to know the Bible well enough to say, "Wait, wait, wait a minute. I got you on this one, Dave. No, no. Our mission is to make disciples." You would be right, but I want you to understand the end point or the destination or what it means finally to make disciples, and I want us to look at Jesus' words themselves.

Look with me at Matthew 28. We're going to pick up in verse 18. The words of Jesus. Jesus is about to ascend into heaven. These are some of his final words to his disciples as they remain on earth. Listen to what he says. "And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.'" What does that sound like to you? That's Colossians 1, isn't it? All. That word comes up again.

Jesus says, "All authority in heaven and on earth is mine. I am now in charge of all things and will be forever in heaven and on earth." So, he states his position first, then he says this in verse 19: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

I want you to see what Jesus is saying here. He's giving his people marching orders. He's about to ascend into heaven, and he proclaims… It's like he has a sandwich. One of the two pieces of bread is "Hey, all authority has been given to me," and the other piece of bread is "And I'll be with you forever," but between that sandwich is the meat: "I want you to make disciples."

I want you to see what it means to be a disciple. It means that we are baptized, and that's the rite of initiation into the family of Jesus. Let me say something really quickly. I never cease to be surprised by how many professing Christians have not been baptized. I want to encourage you tonight. If you've not been baptized, would you let somebody know? If you're a part of another local church, if you're a part of this church, Watermark, would you let somebody know? It's very important you be baptized, not so that God will love you. He already has in Jesus, but it's an act of obedience.

Baptism is the initiation point, but what does culmination of discipleship look like? Jesus says, "Teach them all things so that they may…" What? "Know everything about me"? No. He says, "…so that they will obey me, so that they will observe all that I've commanded." In other words, the very essence of baptism is bringing as many people as we possibly can under the preeminence of Jesus so that Jesus rules over every thought, every word, every feeling, every action, and every relationship, over everyone everywhere. That's the mission. Jesus is our mission.

I was a part of a church that was started near the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. It was a dynamic neighborhood. If you've ever been in a college setting, the neighborhoods around the college are usually pretty wild. Right? People who live there tend to not like organized religion. They tend to be very progressive in their political persuasions, and this was that setting.

So, as we started the church there, I decided I'd spend some time walking up and down the street by where we met. We met in an old Route 66 movie theater. It was a really cool setting. I was just going to walk up and down the street, move in and out of stores and bars and restaurants, and I was going to pastor people whether they wanted me to or not…with a degree of respect. "Hey, I just want to care for you. I want to tell you about Jesus." I was just going to do that.

I struck up a relationship with a young woman in a store that exported rugs from Afghanistan. Really cool store. It also had some fine art from South Asia. I got to know her. Let's just say her name was Flo, because that's what her name was. I got to know Flo, and we began to have conversations about Jesus. I was surprised at how open Flo was.

I would go by once or twice a week when customers weren't coming in and needing her attention. She was the sole storekeeper. We'd have conversations, and I began to realize, "Her heart is growing tender toward Jesus." She was moving toward Jesus in a significant way. As we began to have conversations about Jesus, she was growing closer and closer to knowing him. I'll pick up the story in a minute, because it fits later, so hold on with it. I'll tell you the end of that story in just a minute.

That's our mission. That's what we want. The mission isn't about Flo; the mission is ultimately about Jesus. It's about you and me knowing Jesus personally. It's about Jesus having rule and reign over our lives in every capacity, over every relationship, over every work endeavor, over all that we are. We want Jesus to be preeminent. He is preeminent in the church.

I want you to think about mission differently. Going back to this church I was a part of in this neighborhood that was a little bit eclectic, a little bit avant-garde… I used to park behind a car that had a bumper sticker. I love bumper stickers in really creative parts. Do you ever go look at bumper stickers in Austin? They're just weird, because Austin is weird, but they're really entertaining. Well, this was a place like that.

I parked behind this car every day that had a bumper sticker that said…get this…"What if the UFO is the alien?" That's a really interesting question, isn't it? Like, what if we shouldn't be looking for little green men to come out of a spaceship? What if the spaceship in and of itself is the alien? Like, if it's a robotic AI thing. I don't know. I just found that fascinating. It made me think about UFOs differently.

I want you to think about mission differently tonight. What if the ultimate point of mission is Jesus himself? What if mission ultimately culminates in people knowing, loving, trusting, and obeying Jesus in all of their lives and mission took root all over the world so that in every tribe, every tongue, every place, and among every people, Jesus rightly held the preeminent place he deserves to have? Wouldn't that be amazing?

Here's what one theologian says about this idea of Jesus being preeminent, a Dutch theologian from the past century named Abraham Kuyper. He essentially said, "There is not a square inch in the whole domain of human existence over which Christ does not cry 'Mine!'" Jesus is preeminent over everything. He's the head of the church in that he's preeminent. He's first. He's supreme. He's foremost over everything.

Are we living on mission tonight? Mission begins with you. It begins with you living with the preeminence of Jesus over every aspect, every dimension, every relationship, and every facet of your life, and then it extends into the lives of others.

Now, one last thing, and I'll pick up the story with Flo. Look back at Colossians 1. Jesus is our meaning. Jesus is our mission. There's one more thing I need you to know about Jesus. Verse 19: "For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross."

3. Jesus is our message. Friends, that's the message of the Bible. That's the storyline, start to finish, of the Bible. It is a message about Jesus. It is a story of Jesus, four acts that we already went over. The central figure of the Bible isn't me and isn't you; it's the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is the message we've been entrusted with to share to others. Specifically, I want you to see a couple of things here.

First of all, the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Jesus. Isn't that amazing? Jesus isn't some afterthought of God saying, "Oh no. This thing has gone terribly wrong. How am I going to pull this out of the ditch? Oh! I know…Jesus." The fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Jesus. Jesus is fully God, and he's fully human, and he was God's plan from the very beginning. Why? Because God has great purpose in Jesus.

What is God's purpose in Jesus? To reconcile to himself not some things, not a few things, not many things, but all things. All things will ultimately be reconciled to God through Jesus. In chapter 2 of the Bible, when humankind fell into sin, the whole world, visible and invisible, was corrupted. Everything was broken. Everything was antagonized in its relationship to God.

Here's the bad news of the Bible: you and I, by being human beings, are born in an antagonistic, broken relationship with God. God considers our very first parents' sin (Adam and Eve) as our sin. We are born guilty. We are sinners by birth. And you know what? As we grow older, we get really good at it. We begin to excel at living a life independent from God, apart from God, not honoring God for who he is, trying to mold God into our own image, to make our lives work, to try to use God to be some sort of delivery system so we can have all we want.

The second part of the bad news is in this estranged relationship we have with God, there's absolutely nothing we can do to fix it. You can try as hard as you want. You can't do anything. It is broken beyond repair. But here's the good news: God became a man. His name is Jesus. He lived the only perfect life that has ever been lived, and then he went to the cross, our perfect, blameless substitute, and died in our place.

He died the death you and I deserve to die. The grave couldn't contain him. He has risen from the dead, bodily, physically, at the right hand of the Father, and God offers us reconciliation through Jesus. God takes this sentence that has been proclaimed over us as condemned and estranged and says, "I reverse that now. I am going to take your sin and put it on Jesus. I'm going to take the righteousness of Jesus and give it to you as a free gift. Will you receive it by faith?"

The Bible tells us without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin. You and I, through the blood of Jesus, can be made right with God. Isn't that amazing? We can be reconciled with God. That's the message of the Bible. That's the message of those of us in the room who follow Jesus. That's the message of The Porch. That's what we just sang about. That's what I'm talking about. That's what we're going to leave with.

That's the good news we have for the broken world today: "Be reconciled to God. It's possible. The worst thing that could ever happen to you has happened. You're unreconciled to God, but the good news is God offers you reconciliation through Jesus. Will you turn away from living a life independent of God, and will you turn and run to Jesus and trust in him? Will you do that tonight?"

Maybe you're here tonight in this room or maybe you're joining us online, and if you were really honest, you would say, "You know, Dave, I am not reconciled with God. We're not okay. I know we have a broken relationship. It's estranged. I now realize there's nothing I can do to fix it." If you're in that place tonight, oh, run to Jesus. He loves you. He's willing to receive you. He is willing to take your sin from you and, in exchange, give you his right standing before the Father forever. Would you take him up on that offer tonight? Would you trust in him?

When we think about reconciliation, I want you to think through four levels. If you've never read a guy named John Perkins, you should. He has an amazing story. He speaks a lot about reconciliation. John Perkins was born in rural Mississippi in 1930. His parents died quickly after he was born. He was raised by his grandparents who were sharecroppers.

Being a young Black man in the South, his family said, "You've got to get out of here. This isn't a safe place for you." So he ended up in California. He came to know Jesus, and he has spent his entire life talking about reconciliation. He would say that through the cross of Jesus, there are four levels of reconciliation.

The first is what we just talked about. Through Jesus and his blood, you and I can be reconciled to God. That relationship that's broken can be repaired forever. But that's not the only place reconciliation happens. Through the cross of Jesus, we can be reconciled to each other. I get to serve here on Monday nights in this very same space, and we get to see reconciliation happen all the time. They're the craziest stories.

People do horrible things to people. Have you realized that yet? Maybe, sadly, you've been the recipient of that. Maybe you have been the perpetrator in that. There's not a week that goes by that we don't hear of unfaithful spouses being reconciled one to another. There's not a month that goes by that we don't get to see a child who was abused by a parent be reconciled to that parent.

We get to see friends who betrayed each other and hurt one another come back together. We get to see the most amazing acts of forgiveness and reconciliation. How is that all possible? It's through the blood of Jesus. It's because God forgives us in Jesus, and because his forgiveness is so thorough, so pervasive, you and I can extend that same forgiveness one to another.

So, four levels of reconciliation: people to God, people to people, and then you see this other level of reconciliation in the Bible. I love this. It's people groups to people groups. Don't you love that? In the anthropology of the New Testament, there are only two kinds of people in the world. There are those who come from Jewish heritage, and everybody else is considered a Gentile.

Those two groups of people did not like each other in the ancient culture of the Bible. They were at odds. Yet, when the church was formed, guess what happened. Jews were reconciled as a people group to Gentiles. How did that happen? Through Jesus. Think about what that could look like in our world today. Could you imagine a world where men are reconciled to women? How about white people being reconciled to non-white people?

Let's take it even deeper. How about Democrats being reconciled to Republicans? Do you want to blow your mind tonight? What if Aggies could be reconciled to Longhorns through Jesus Christ? Whoa! Some of you need to repent and believe. I hear that. It's always the Aggies too. I'm sorry. Man! You talk about a people group far from God. It's all right. Nobody is beyond his reach. Find an Aggie and share the gospel tonight, would you?

Jesus is our message. Let's go back to Flo. So, I'm there in Flo's store, and I leave the day thinking, "Oh, she's so close to coming to know Jesus. Her heart is so tender." So, I go home, sleep on it, wake up the next morning, and I just have this sense. I don't know if it's from the Holy Spirit or it's spiritual indigestion. Sometimes it's hard to discern. But I'm like, "Today is the day that Flo meets Jesus."

So, I walked up to her store. I waited for there to be an opening. I walked in. I said, "Flo, do you want to trust Jesus today?" She began to tear up, and I thought, "Okay. That's a good sign." She said, "Oh, I'm so close, but I don't know." I said, "Okay. Let's talk about the gospel again." We went over it, and she agreed with everything. "God is a holy God, and I'm a sinner separated from him, and the only way I can know him and be forgiven is through Jesus."

I walked through all of the presuppositions of the gospel, and she said, "I believe. I believe. I believe." I said, "Why not trust him today?" and she began to weep. She said, "I just can't." I said, "Flo, I don't understand. You profess to believe all of the tenets of the gospel. Why not trust Jesus today? Why not give your life to Jesus?" She looked at me through tears, and this is what she said: "Dave, I am so ready to become a Christian; I'm just not ready yet to be a Republican."

"Flo, where did you see that in the Bible? Please tell me. What intertestamental book does that come from? What is happening?" Do you know what she said? She said, "It's not in the Bible, but I've been watching Facebook posts, Twitter posts…" Back then it was Twitter. "…Instagram. I've been watching the people who go to your church, and my understanding from them is you've got t

Listen to me, friends. I want us to be politically active. I think we have a responsibility to love and serve people who are marginalized. I think that's the calling of the gospel. I think the gospel has application. We're to care for the unborn. We're to care for the vulnerable. We're to care for the poor.

We're to care for the widow and the orphan. We're to care for the sojourner. We're absolutely to do all that, and we need to speak into culture. We need to speak into it, but let's not hijack our main message. The primary message you and I should be majoring on is "Be reconciled to God through Jesus." Friends, are we living on message tonight?

Here's what I want you to see as we wrap up. Jesus is our meaning, Jesus is our mission, and Jesus is our message. That's who Jesus is to us. This is why this passage is my favorite passage in all of Scripture. But if these things are true (and I firmly believe they are, because they're right out of the Bible), then I think it's worth building our lives around knowing Jesus Christ. What might that look like?

There's a book that went around about 15 years ago. Every now and then, a new book comes through the church that everybody says, "Hey, you've got to read this. This is amazing. This will change your life," and then it passes quickly. This was one of those books. It was called Blue Like Jazz. Maybe you're old and you read it. A guy named Donald Miller wrote it. It's not a bad book; it was just a fad book. But in this book he tells this story that I really love. Listen to it.

"A guy I know named Alan went around the country asking ministry leaders questions. He went to successful churches and asked the pastors what they were doing, why what they were doing was working. It sounded very boring except for one visit he made to a man named Bill Bright, the president of a big ministry. Alan said he was a big man, full of life, who listened without shifting his eyes.

Alan asked a few questions. I don't know what they were, but as a final question he asked Dr. Bright what Jesus meant to him. Alan said Dr. Bright could not answer the question. He said Dr. Bright just started to cry. He sat there in his big chair behind his big desk and wept. When Alan told that story I wondered what it was like to love Jesus that way. […] I knew then that I would like to know Jesus like that, with my heart, not just my head. I felt like that would be the key to something."

Friends, that's the key to everything. As we close tonight, I want to invite you to build your life entirely around knowing Jesus. The simplest way to begin, if you don't know where to start… Before you go to bed tonight, as you wake up tomorrow, open up your Bible, pick a gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), and just begin to read, and just ask Jesus to make himself known to you.

Our relationship with God is different than a relationship with a person, but there are some similarities, and the way we get to know Jesus is through conversation. Jesus speaks to us through his Word and his Spirit, and you and I respond to him in prayer. Will you build your life around knowing Jesus? Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, thank you that you give our lives meaning. Thank you that you give our lives purpose and that you call us to a mission of knowing you and making you known to the nations. Thank you that you give us a message to lead with that people can be reconciled to God and each other through who you are and what you've done.

Oh, I pray for my friends tonight. I pray for those who are hurting and struggling, that they would find comfort in you, Jesus. I pray for those who are trying to make sense of what's happening, that they would make sense of all that they see in their lives through the lens of you, Jesus. I pray for those who are looking for direction and guidance as to what to do next with their lives, that they would find purpose in your mission.

Lord, I pray for those who've not yet believed, that tonight they would hear the clear message "You can be reconciled to God through Jesus. Will you believe?" Lord Jesus, you are the Creator of all things. All things were created by you, through you, and ultimately for you. We want to live our lives completely and entirely for your glory together. In your good name we pray, amen.