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Jesus: His Person

How would you describe a person you can trust?

People today are crying out for authentic friends, and leaders who exhibit integrity, realness, love, and faithfulness. Jesus, by his nature, is a leader we can trust.

I. Jesus Had Love

People loved to be with Jesus. He related well to the ordinary person, and he invested long hours in friendships with people. His stories rang true.

A. Jesus Made an Effort to be With People

John 1:35‑39
35        The next day John was there again with two of his disciples.
36        When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!"
37        When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.
38        Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?" They said, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?"
39        "Come," he replied, "and you will see." So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour (4pm). (NIV)

Jesus had the world to save. He was going to die for our sin. Yet, he took a whole day just to get to know these men. Can you imagine what it would feel like to sit and have a conversation with God?

Why do you think relationships with people were so important to Jesus?

B. Jesus spoke in vivid pictures (the golden rule):

Matt 7:9‑12
9          "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
10        Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?
11        If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
12        So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. (NIV)

C. Jesus was Kind and Gentle

He was kind to children:

Matt 19:13‑14
13 Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them.
14 Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." (NIV)

He was kind to the woman caught in adultery:
(Though he was kind, he challenged her to a better life than she was living.)

John 8:3‑11
3          The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group
4          and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.
5          In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?"
6          They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.
7          When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."
8          Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9          At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.
10        Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
11        "No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin." (NIV)

How do you think this lady’s life was changed by this encounter with Jesus?

Why did Jesus want her to leave her life of sin?

D. He was not kind to hypocritical religious leaders:

Matt 23:27‑29
27        "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.
28        In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
29        "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. (NIV)

Why do you think he was so hard on hypocrites?

One of the most consistent reasons I have heard for years, of why people have rejected the church, is hypocrisy. When people claim to be on God’s side, you want to see consistency in their lives, and they need to represent their Lord well.

Of course one cannot blame their lack of faith on the hypocrisy of another. I will not let someone else’s hypocrisy keep me from knowing God, and loving Him.

Jesus told a story to demonstrate how he felt about hypocrisy:

Luke 18:9‑14
9          To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:
10        "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11        The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men ‑‑ robbers, evildoers, adulterers ‑‑ or even like this tax collector.
12        I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'
13        "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
14        "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."    (NIV)

We must be real with Jesus. He knows what we are like before we even tell him. He cares about us. The Pharisee’s focus was on himself and based upon human comparison. The tax collector was honest with God about who and what he was.

II. Jesus Acted on His Love

Brenen Manning tells the story of a friend who jumped on a live hand grenade and saved Brenen's life. When he was talking with this friend's mother later, she described her son's love in this way. "What more could he have done for you?"

Listen to this description of where Jesus came from before he came to earth:

Isa 6:1‑4
1          In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
2          Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.
3          And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."
4          At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. (NIV)

Contrast that scene to this one where Jesus suffered before he died on the cross:

Matt 27:28‑31
28        They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him,
29        and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. "Hail, king of the Jews!" they said.
30        They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again.
31        After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. (NIV)

Why do you think Jesus was willing to go through this kind of harassment and sacrifice?

Jesus was other person centered. He was more concerned about our need for forgiveness than he was about his own comfort and convenience. What a great model of self-sacrificing love.

Jesus is an example of love for us to follow:

I Jn 4:9‑11
9          This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
10        This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11        Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (NIV)

Phil 2:5‑10
5          Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6          Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7          but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
8          And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death‑‑ even death on a cross!
9          Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,
10        that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,   (NIV)

If we understood the depths of Christ's love for us, how would that change our day-to-day life?

Knowing we are loved can give us a powerful foundation on which to live. We are important enough to the God of the universe that he was willing to die for us. We will do anything for someone who truly loves us. We can reach out in love to our friends and family with God’s love as our foundation.

Conclusion

What is so appealing about Jesus? It is not a moral code, or a set of rules that attracts us. Jesus gives us Himself. He is the nature and character of God. He is love, he is power, he is whole -- emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. He is joyful.

Jesus' love gives stability to life. In a world with so many moral choices, God says life is very simple -- Love God with all your heart, and people as yourself. We can know what is right.

For those in need of a mother, he tenderly cares for us. (Luke 1:76-79; I Thess. 2:7)
For those in need of a father, he confidently and gently leads us. (Ps. 23)
For those in need of relationships, he loves us. (I John 4:10)
For those in need of compassion, he weeps for us. (Phil. 2:1-11)
For those in need of a Savior, he died for us all. (Luke 1:46-50; Titus 3:4-7)

This is the kind of leader anyone would be happy to follow!