Give Me Jesus

In one paragraph

The sermon returned to Philippians 2, a passage the preacher had also used the previous week at a service held at the county fair. The core of the message was that the humiliation and exaltation of Jesus described there does not stand alone in scripture - it is part of a pattern that runs from Isaiah through John, Hebrews, Colossians, and Peter. The preacher worked through five passages to show...

Read together

1. Philippians 2:1-11 the central text of the sermon, read and expounded at length as the Christ hymn
2. John 1:1-18 read as a New Testament parallel to the Christ hymn, establishing Jesus as the Word, agent of creation, and light of the world
3. Hebrews 1:1-4 read as the exordium of Hebrews, describing Jesus as radiance of God's glory and exact representation of his nature
4. 1 Peter 2:22-25 read to show Jesus committing no sin, not retaliating, bearing sins on the cross, and healing by his wounds
5. Colossians 1:15-20 read as a parallel Christ passage describing Jesus as image of the invisible God, agent of creation, and reconciler of all things
6. Isaiah 53:1-12 read in full as the Old Testament suffering servant song, applied throughout to Jesus and connected to the Dead Sea Scrolls Isaiah scroll
7. Romans 3:21-26 read at communion as an honorable mention passage describing justification through Christ as propitiation

What was said

• Write down John 1:1-18, Isaiah 53, or one of the other passages mentioned and read it every day this week.
• If you are in your twenties or know someone who is, show up to Seeking Truth in Your Twenties tonight at 6:30 on Roberta Drive.
• Look up the Old Bill's Fun Run giving link on the First Baptist website after August 14 and give to the Benevolence Fund.
• Pray for Anders and Brooke, for the camp construction in Zambia, for local Zambian volunteers to come alongside the ministry, and for a peaceful election there on August 13.
• If you have been putting off faith in Christ, find someone sitting near you this week who can show you what Jesus looks like, as the speaker asked the congregation to be that witness.

Talk about it

1. Anders and Brooke shared how staying in Zambia for fifteen months without returning to the States allowed the kids to trust them and open up in deeper ways. What does that kind of long-term presence cost a person, and where have you seen that kind of patient investment pay off in your own life or community?
2. The preacher described a friend who said after losing his wife that he felt like he understood Jesus but could not understand Father God at all. Have you ever felt that gap yourself, and how has looking at Jesus helped or not helped you understand the Father?
3. The sermon worked through several passages, John 1, Hebrews 1, Colossians 1, and others, all pointing to Jesus as the agent of creation who then humbled himself to death on a cross. What does it do to you personally when you hold those two things together, that the one who made everything is the same one who emptied himself?
4. Isaiah 53 was written roughly seven hundred years before the crucifixion, and the preacher noted that the Dead Sea Scrolls confirmed the text has not meaningfully changed. Does that kind of historical evidence affect your faith, and if so, how?
5. At the end of the passage from Isaiah 53, the preacher paused on the line that the servant justified the many, not all, and noted that one thief accepted Jesus and one rejected him while both were right there beside him. What do you make of that, and how does it shape the way you think about sharing your faith with people around you?