The Main Thing
Romans 1:3-4
ILL- The captain of the airplane came over the intercom and said, "Ladies and gentleman, I have some good news, and some bad news. The bad news is that we’re just a tad bit off course. As a matter of fact our instruments are not working and we have now idea where we are. To put it bluntly- we’re lost. But the good news is, we’re making excellent time."
What is the focus of life? Where are the real answers to life’s questions to be found? Where are we heading? These are questions that all of us have asked. Unfortunately, sometimes it is true that even when we think we know where we are going, often we do not end up there.
ILL- It is similar to the story of the man who bought a new hunting dog. Eager to see how he would perform, he took him out to track a bear. No sooner then they had gotten into the woods then the dog picked up the trail. Suddenly he stopped, sniffed the ground, and headed in a new direction.
He had caught the scent of a deer that had crossed the bear’s path. A few moments later he halted again, this time smelling a rabbit that had crossed the path of the deer. Finally the breathless hunter caught up with his dog, only to find him barking triumphantly down the hole of a field mouse. Too often we find ourselves looking in all the wrong places for the answers, only to find that they are not to be found.
The Bible clearly reveals that there is a single focus for life. All of history centers on this singular focus: the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, born of human flesh and revealed as the Son of God through His resurrection, is the central focus of the Gospel and of all God’s purposes in history. And He should be the central focus of our lives as well. The problem is that we have lost this focus. Someone once said, "The MAIN THING is to keep the MAIN THING the MAIN THING." Our problem is that we do not really understand what is the main thing. Do you understand what is the main thing?
Not only do non-Christians fail to discover the main thing but also Christians fail to keep the main thing the main thing. We talk about how Christ should be central, but we live as if He is not.
In fact, many times we do not live in any way that is noticeably different than those around us who do not know the Lord. But if Christ is really central in our lives, our lives should reflect that reality.
Because God has reached out to us, revealed His power to save us, and shown us the focus of His purpose for us through Christ, we must respond in faith by looking to Him as the central focus of our lives. Failure to do this results in Christianity without Christ, which is not true Christianity at all. It makes our lives powerless and w/o direction.
Our text captures a picture of Christ that is essential to understanding the heart of true Christianity. What Paul writes here will disclose the place Christ must occupy in our lives. Looking at this passage, let’s examine three revelations concerning Jesus Christ that underscore His place in history and in life as the main thing.
I. HIS PURPOSE. Vs. 3, Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh…
Jesus came for a reason. He had a purpose to fulfill.
When we speak of the man Jesus, we must always understand that we are speaking of the Son of God. This is what the phrase "His Son" means.
Philippians 2:6-7, Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made Himself nothing, taking the very form of a servant,
being made the likeness of man. (ESV)
This is a wonderful description of Jesus. It describes not only His equality with God but also His being made a man. In other words, God became flesh. This is what we call the incarnation of Christ. Why did Jesus become a man? Why did God take upon Himself human flesh? And how is this good news? In Jesus, God became a man in order to reach out to us. This is the wonder of the incarnation. It tells us that God made the first move. He reached out to us because He loves us.
The gulf that separated me from Christ, my Lord,
It was so vast the crossing I could never ford;
From where I was to His demand, it seemed so far;
I cried, "Dear Lord, I cannot come to where you are."
He came to me, O, He came to me.
When I could not come to where He was, He came to me.
That’s why He died on Calvary;
When I could not come to where He was, He came to me.
He came to me when I was bound in chains of sin,
He came to me when I possessed no hope within;
He picked me up and He drew me gently to His side,
Where, today, in His sweet love I now abide.
God took the divine initiative & came to us!
II. HIS POWER. Vs. 4, And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
Jesus was not just a man reaching out to us. He is the eternal God/Man. Paul says that He was declared . . . to be the Son of God. We know this is so because of His resurrection from the dead. This was how the revelation that He was and is the Son of God was declared. Because Jesus Christ rose from the dead, we know that His claims were true. Because of His resurrection, we know that Jesus is who He said He was.
Jesus explicitly told us who He was: "I and the Father are one" John 10:30. He said, Before Abraham was born, I am!" John 8:58. He accepted Thomas’ comment, when Thomas declared after Jesus’ resurrection, "My Lord and my God" John 20:28. Jesus claimed to be divine. And because of His resurrection, we know that He is.
ILL- While serving as Vice President, former President George Bush attended the funeral service of Leonid Brezhnev, the leader of the Soviet Union from 1964 –1982. Mr. Bush said, " An amazing thing happened at the funeral of Brezhnev. Things were running to a military precision; a coldness and hollowness pervaded the ceremony -the marching soldiers, steel helmets, Marxist rhetoric, but no prayers, no comforting hymns, no mention of God. " He went on: "I happened to be in just the right spot to see Mrs. Brezhnev. She walked up to the casket and took one last look at her husband, and there in the cold gray center of that oppressive state, she traced the sign of the cross over her husband’s chest. I was stunned. In that simple act, God had broken through the core of the communist system. "
APPLICATION: There in the citadel of secular, atheistic power, the wife of the man who had it all-- hoped that her husband was wrong. She hoped that there was another life, and that that life was best represented by Jesus who died on the cross, and that the same Jesus might yet have mercy on her husband.
Without Jesus Christ as the divine Son of God, we have no faith to follow. Without Christ we have no Christianity. If Jesus was simply a man and not the eternal Son of God, then we have no salvation at all. This is why Paul emphasizes that not only did Jesus come in the flesh but He also was God come in the flesh & that He is alive!
III. HIS POSITION. Vs. 3a, Jesus Christ our Lord.
His position is revealed in His name.
Jesus is His human name. But it was given for a very specific reason. It means Savior. He was to be called Jesus because He was sent to save His people from their sins. The name Jesus reminds us of the saving work He came to accomplish. It reminds us that in Jesus, God reached out to us. He came to this earth, becoming a man, in order to die on the Cross-to pay the penalty for our sins. He came to where we were so that we might go to where He is.
Christ literally means anointed one. This is a reference to the Messiah Israel expected. The Messiah was to be the anointed one sent from God to deliver His people. It is He who fulfills all the prophecies pointing toward the Messiah of God, the anointed One.
Lord can simply mean ruler or master. At times it is used as a polite term of respect.
But as it is applied to Jesus Christ, it has a very definite meaning. The Greek word for Lord (kyrios) used in the Greek version of the Old Testament (Septuagint) to translate the Hebrew name for God (Yahweh or Jehovah) is the same word used concerning Jesus. In other words, to say that Jesus Christ is Lord is to say that He is God. This was the earliest confession of the Christian church. For Christians to say that "Jesus is Lord" was not simply a statement of fact, it was a statement of faith. It was a confession of faith. It told what they believed and to whom they were committed. It also declared whom they would follow.
The implications of Christ’s Lordship are powerful. If He is indeed Lord, then He must be our Lord. And that is the question we must all ask ourselves. Is He my Lord?
We must surrender our lives to Him, acknowledging Him as our Lord, in order to receive His gift of forgiveness and grace. This is the fundamental need of all people everywhere.
God has reached out to us, revealed His power to save us, and shown us the focus of His purposes for us through Jesus Christ. Will we respond in faith by looking to Him as the central focus of our lives? This is our challenge. Do we really understand what is the main thing?
According to the Bible, Jesus Christ our Lord is the main thing! He is the focus of our faith. Is He the focus of your life?
If your life has been out of focus recently, then you might want to refocus on Christ. His Lordship has implications for every area of your life. If your life is centered in Jesus Christ, then He will impact every area of your existence: your personal behavior, your family life, your career, and your social life. If you are looking everywhere else for answers, then you will miss the real meaning of it all. Look to Christ.
ILL- For many years Bruce Larson worked in New York City and counseled at his office a number of people who were wrestling with this yes-or-no decision. Often he would suggest they walk from his office down to the RCA Building on 5th Avenue. In the entrance of that building is a gigantic statue of Atlas, the man of Greek Mythology punished by Zeus to hold the world upon his shoulders. There he is, the most powerfully built man in the world, and he can barely stand up under this burden. “Now that’s one way to live, trying to carry the world on your shoulders. But now come across the street with me”. On the other side of 5th is Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, and there behind the high altar is a little shrine of the boy Jesus, perhaps eight or nine years old, and with no effort He is holding the world in one hand. APPLICATION: We have a choice. We can carry the world on our shoulders, or we can say, ‘I give up, Lord; here’s my life. I give you my world; I give you my all.”
