Good Enough for Jesus, Good Enough for Me

Jonathan discusses the significance of Jesus' baptism and why he chose to be baptized even though he had no need for repentance or forgiveness. Jesus entered into solidarity with humanity by becoming sin for us, so that through him we might become righteous. Because Jesus has done this, we can believe these three things:

 

  • Jesus understands us 
  • Jesus is with 
  • We can trust Jesus. 

 

Transcript:

 

Mallorie:

Our scripture reading for today comes from Acts 19, one through seven. Hear the word of the Lord. While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? They answered, no. We have not even heard that there is the Holy Spirit. So Paul asked, then, what baptism did you receive? John's baptism? They replied, Paul said John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him that is Jesus. On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. There were about 12 men and all. This is the word of the Lord.

 

Pastor Jonathan:

Well, good morning everyone. My name is Jonathan. I get to be a pastor here at Journey and today on the church calendar is known as the Sunday where we recognize the baptism of Jesus. So that's what we're going to be talking about here in just a little bit, but before we get there, we have some housekeeping items to take care of. It is the new year, which means we have some New Year cleaning, which I don't know is a thing, but we're going to make it one today, just some new year housekeeping things to talk about. Number one, if you were around during the advent season, you and you remember that you were around, you will recall that we put forth a new initiative at Journey through an organization called World Relief and the initiative is what's called the Good Neighbor Team, the Good Neighbor Team.

 

It fits well with our vision here at Journey and with the things that we are trying to do in our own neighborhood. And so we were talking about partnering with World Relief in order to form our own good neighbor team that we would have the opportunity to welcome a family who is being resettled here in the Dallas area from possibly a variety of different parts of the world. If you are interested in being a part of this new initiative, we are going to have a brief meeting and I emphasize brief at the end of this gathering at the U Table right behind where we are sitting now, and we need to collect just a little bit of information from you so that we can get you started in the process. World Relief is a renowned and part of us entering into this partnership with them and the Good Neighbor team is that it has to be official.

 

They want for us to, as you could understand, make sure that we have the ability to fulfill our end of the bargain and there's just some issues that we have to go through, some training that you have to do in order to be put on this team. So it isn't just a sign on the dotted line and you're in kind of thing, but it's also not the acts or anything like that. If you are alive and have a pulse, then most likely you'll be able to pass the training and I emphasize most likely, and if you cannot pass the training, Mallory is very smart and she'll do it for you so she can help you with that. But all of that to say after the gathering, just see us back at the U table and Jeremy will be back there to facilitate that. Again, that's if you have interest in being a part of the Good Neighbor team.

 

The other housekeeping item is just simply to say Happy New Year today. Yes, thank you. Thank you. Today is the first Sunday of 2024, if you could believe that 2024 each year that unfolds on the calendar for me. Seems like one of those years where sometime in past years I thought that seems really futuristic, but as always, at some point the future becomes present and that is where we are here in 2004 with that becoming the year that we are in and this year is promising to be a year of great ministry and presence in our neighborhood here at Journey Community as we continue to be responsive to whatever it is that God is calling us to. So being that it is the first Sunday of 2024, we have a little tradition here, a journey that's probably not all that uncommon. We like to spend this day looking back at the year that was at least a part of this day, and so I wanted to take just a minute and do that now.

 

But before we get into sharing some of the great things that happened in 2023, I wanted to just recap some things that if you are a part of journey, you should be able to know and remember as best as possible. One of the things that we try to do here is keep things as simple as we possibly can. Some of you're like you are not great at that, but that's our aim at least is trying to keep things as simple as we possibly can. Our greatest desire at Journey is to be a community of people following the way of Jesus and learning to be present. One of the ways in which we keep that simple is we say it every time in which we gather. It's one of the things that we proclaim together as a community. We are a community of people following the way of Jesus and learning to be present and we seek to achieve that by living our lives both individually and collectively as the church in rhythms that form us in the way of Jesus.

 

Dallas Willard, who is one of my favorite writers, was a professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California, wrote a lot of books about the spiritual life and about being formed into the image of Jesus. He wrote this, he wrote, we are saved by grace of course, and by it alone and not because we deserve it, that is the basis of God's acceptance of us. But grace does not mean that sufficient strength and insight will automatically will be automatically infused into our being in the moment of need. What Dallas Willard is saying here is that while we are saved by grace, we have to put forth some effort in order to be shaped by the ways of the kingdom of God that replace the ways that we have been previously shaped by the ways of brokenness. It's not an issue of whether or not you have received grace.

 

It's an issue of how are you living your life in response to the grace that you have received. So following in the footsteps of Jesus, learning to pattern our lives as he taught, that the Spirit might be able to shape us into people of sufficient strength and insight, not only at the time of need but at all times. That is the aim of what we're saying when we're talking about following the way of Jesus and learning to be present. So we do this as we said collectively and individually. Individually. We do this by being people who seek to never take for granted by seeking to be people who are never unresponsive and by being people who are seeking to constantly be awakened to new wonder and praise of God's goodness. If that sounds familiar to you, you said it earlier, if you followed along with opening liturgy, again, we like to keep things simple.

 

We do this collectively by seeking to leverage whatever abilities, influence and resources we have to bless our neighbors. Jesus taught that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with your heart, soul might and to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus did not say that you are to love God. And then if you want extra credit, love your neighbor. He didn't say, if you love God, it's a good idea to love your neighbor. The foundation of the law, according to Jesus, the teaching of Jesus and the kingdom of God is that those who love God will also love their neighbor. That is the foundation of the kingdom. So we take Jesus at his word, try to trust him with our lives and we trust him when he says that. So we want to leverage our abilities and influence and resources to bless our neighbors and the way in which we evaluate that is by the fruit of the Spirit, the fruits of the spirit.

 

If you know the kids song or love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, if I got them all and we believe that we by the work of the Spirit in us, that it is possible for the spirit to mature and prune our lives to the point to where those fruits bear their fruit in our lives, that all of the ways of the world that have been formed within us can be reshaped and replaced by the ways of Jesus. That's also true of us as individuals and true of us collectively as the church. It doesn't make sense to have patient people in an impatient church.

 

They all work together. And so to take all of that and try to boil it down to its most simple form, we believe that the way that we best follow Jesus, our three things to be present with Jesus, to be shaped by Jesus and to do what Jesus did and to make it even more simple than that, a moniker that we have adopted along the way is if it's good enough for Jesus, then it's good enough for me. We probably should get a bumper sticker made of that. And so those are sort of the things that make us tick. That's why we do what we do and how we do it and all those things. But I wanted to just talk a little bit about how that played out at least by giving just some statistics and sharing some stories with you about how that played out over the past year of 2023.

 

So just a couple of things and by the way, this next week we're going to send out a more in depth version of this that just tells you a bunch of interesting stats that just measurements that are available to us to see the effectiveness of what all the things that we do at Journey. But here's just a few highlights things that I think are important for us to celebrate. So last year we had 44 new people check in at Journey. That means that 44 people took the time to check in and register that they were here. If you are here and you did not check in, you are not counted in that you'll have to be counted in 2024, but you can still do that. And if you want to know how, I can't tell you how to do that, but I'm sure Jeremy can meet 'em at the U table and you'll be included in that for the next year.

 

On Easter Sunday, we nearly tripled our average attendance just on Easter Sunday. Typically, the most that you can hope for is somewhere around double. And this last year we triple that and I bring those two stats to us with this understanding that numbers are never the focus for us, but those numbers represent new friends that we have made this year and represent some that have both contributed to the work that Journey community is doing and is about and also represents some who needed to be a part of a community such as this. And so those things are worth celebrating. We had our first ever STEAM camp this past summer. STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art and Mathematics, and we had a camp that clumped all of those things together. We believe that creative expression is a part of being the people of Jesus. That's the way that God created us and any exploration of science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics ultimately is a expression of Jesus, of God and the creation of the world.

 

And so we had our first ever steam camp. We had 30 kids at that steam camp, which was incredible. We also had a great group of volunteers and they worked extremely hard at Steam camp and did much more than the number of volunteers we had should have been able to produce, but that's how great they were. This is something that I am really proud about and excited about. One of the things that we try to stress often at Journey is that this gathering what we do here on Sundays and anytime we gather that it is an expression of our community is a work of the people. And so we try to incorporate as many people in our gathering as possible so that it's not just one person leading everything. We had 16 different people this past year help with things on Sunday morning, whether that be greeting or serving communion or reading scripture or preaching or whatever that looks like.

 

And six of those were brand new. Last year was the first year that they participated in those things. That's something for us to celebrate. We were able to bring Carly on. She finally got the hints that we were leaving behind and she signed up to be the family pastor last year, and that's something for us to celebrate. We prayed for hundreds of requests represented by our neighbors. Each week we send out a offer for people to submit their prayer requests, and we always have people respond to that from our neighborhood and we faithfully pray for those needs as they come in. And last but not least, at least for what we have to share this morning, we logged over 300 hours of community service in our neighborhood. That means the organized serving that the church has done, and then of course anything that individuals have done is not represented in that.

 

But that averages out to about five hours a week that people from this congregation have been present in their neighborhood and serving here. Those are just a small snapshot of some of the wonderful things that you have been a part of here at Journey, things that God has been inspiring you towards and things that God has blessed us with over this past year. And it is my belief that continuing to follow the way of Jesus, continuing to be present to the leadership of the Holy Spirit, to continue to be responsive to wherever God leads us, that when we stand here in 2025, looking back on 2024, there will be much more great stories for us to tell. And I personally am super excited about that and I hope that you are too. And I want to emphasize this morning as well that this is an expression of all of us.

 

It takes every single one of us in order to make this thing called journey community work. That's the way that the church has always been designed and is always supposed to be is the people of God collecting together, coming together to do the work that God has called them to do. Whatever that is, whatever it looks like is unique to each congregation, but the church is the people. And I just want to say thank you for allowing me to play the role that I play in this congregation. Thank you for all of the inspiration that you have offered me. The encouragement, the kindness, the ability to be a part of your lives is not something that I take for granted. And so I just want to say thank you and here's to 2024.

 

Yeah, we can clap for that. Alright, so as promised, we are going to talk a little bit about Jesus' baptism. So if you have your Bibles, I want to encourage you to do this too. In an a digital age, we all have access to whatever we want practically in our pockets. And while that has a tremendous amount of benefits, one of the things that I have opted to do is to actually read more out of the hard copy of my Bible. I don't know that there is truly any difference between the hard copy and the digital copy. It probably is more of a matter of preference, but I know for me that when I hold this Bible in my hands, it seems to have a stronger connection to my life than it does when I'm reading it on a screen. That might be the same for you.

 

Maybe it's the opposite of that for you, but I just wanted to suggest that should you decide that you want to keep a hard copy handy and carry it in, you won't be alone. There'll be a few of us who are doing that though it might be less and less. I think it's an important thing. Also, you get to, if you have the hard copy, you get to make notes so you get all kinds of spots in the margin for you to write things for you to come back with. And yeah, you can do that on the digital copies too, but sometimes it's harder to access that way. So we'll get off that soapbox and if you would, I'm going to invite you to stand this morning as we read from the book of Mark, Matthew, mark, Luke and John are the first four books of the New Testament. They are written biographies about the life of Jesus and the teaching of Jesus. Mark is the second one, and that's where we're going to start reading today. Mark chapter one beginning in verse four. Let's get this up to date here. Here is how Mark

 

Tells this story of Jesus's life. And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching some of your Bibles might say, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him confessing their sins. They were baptized by him and the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message after me comes one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. At that time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove and a voice came from heaven. You are my son with whom I am well pleased. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks. Be together. You may be seated. There is a lot going on in this brief six verses or seven verses of scripture,


And part of it is Jesus and John the Baptist being connected to the Old Testament prophecies that were written about, the one who was to come, that he would have a messenger that went before him, who is John the Baptist, and that he would come and the clouds breaking open and proclaiming that Jesus is God's sum. There's a lot of powerful illustrations there for us in this passage today. But honestly over the years as I have read this story, there've been many times where I was very confused by what was going on. I don't know if that's the same for you or maybe you've understood it more than I have or better than I have all along. But what's confusing to me is why did Jesus get baptized? Have you ever thought about that? Why did Jesus get baptized? Now for you and for me, if you and I, or when you and I became followers of Jesus, we accepted Jesus's grace, we were probably encouraged to be baptized because baptism is twofold. Baptism is for repent is a sign of repentance and a sign of forgiveness. When we repent and we receive forgiveness when we are born again, we enter into the baptism waters in order to proclaim outwardly what is taking place inwardly.

But as we know, Jesus of course had no need of repentance nor forgiveness. In fact, when we are baptized, we are baptized into the life of Jesus as a sign of being grafted into his family as people following his way. If you go back and you look about baptism in the Jewish context, baptism most often had to do with ceremonial washings and cleansings. But again, this is not necessarily something that Jesus would've needed to do. So as I have looked into this and studied this and tried to answer the question, why was Jesus baptized, I found the key that makes for me at least the most sense as to what was going on as Jesus entered the baptism waters and was baptized by John. And it comes from a letter that at least in the Bible follows Mark and second Corinthians 5 21. Here is what it says, God made him and that him is Jesus who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. As best as I can understand what Mark is trying to signify here and talking about Jesus being baptized is the solidarity that Jesus claimed, not because he had to, but because he chose to. The solidarity that he claimed with you and me, he became sin so that through him we might become his righteousness.

 

This is the simple message of Jesus for you and for me. Jesus humbled himself on our behalf. That is why he entered into the baptism waters to show his solidarity with you and with me. So what does this mean for us? Why is this important? Well, of course we could spend now and many hours after talking about the significance of this and how this applies to us, but I want to just briefly highlight three things that I believe for us today are things that I am seeking to make the foundation of my life in 2024 and things that I would invite you to consider for you to remember at the top of your mind as often as possible as we go through this next year. First and foremost, what this means for us that Jesus entered into solidarity with us is that Jesus gets you. Jesus understands you. He understands what you're going through. He understands the human struggle. He understands one moment being on top of the world and the next moment feeling like the world is on top of you, Jesus gets you. The second thing that it means for us is that Jesus is with you

 

Every moment of every day in life's darkest valleys. When life is filled with hope and promise, Jesus is with you. It's one of the reasons why each time we gather, we proclaim Jesus is here by His spirit. He is here. It's one of the things that one of my New Year's resolutions, if you'll call it that anytime I pass through a doorway, my goal is to remind myself Jesus is here. Whatever that doorway leads to, that Jesus is here because Jesus is with us. Jesus is with you. He gets you. He is with you. And finally, it means that you can trust Jesus. You can trust Jesus. If Jesus said it, if Jesus taught it, if Jesus encouraged it, you can trust it. And I believe holy and fully that if we individually and as a community would fully and completely trust Jesus, that we would see things that don't make sense unfold in our lives, in our church and in our neighborhood. For some of us this year is beginning with circumstances that you would rather not face. Jesus. In fact, right after this grand story of him being baptized was chastised by his peers over and over again,

Faced many obstacles, faced many dark days, many trying circumstances, those things are always going to be a part of reality for us. But the most important truth in all that is swirling around us at whatever time, the most important thing for us to remember is that learning to live in the way of Jesus and to trust him will provide a peace that cannot be understood, that cannot be equated, and that oftentimes just simply a piece that doesn't make sense.

 

I want to wrap up our time together by reading a few verses from a letter that Paul wrote to one of his followers named Titus. He wrote this letter offering Titus instructions as far as how he is to live the best way, and as we read this song or right after we read this scripture, we're going to play a song. It's a very simple song. It's from one of my favorite 1990s bands called Jars of Clay, if you know who they are, but it's a song that's just titled Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet. And as the song plays, I just wanted to create a moment for you to respond to whatever the spirit is leading you to in this moment, just a time of introspection and contemplation. If in this moment you want to pray, of course the altars back here are open, the great place for you to gather.


If you want to sit in your seat and want somebody to come and pray for you, you can just slip up your hand. If you just want to sit there and listen, that is totally fine too. But I'm going to read this passage and then follow it up by this song. And then following that we'll offer the instructions for communion. Here's what Paul's advice to Titus is in Titus chapter two, verse 11, for the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own eager to do what is good.