Do Church - How much Christ is Committed to us.

1. We welcome Ilias Papoutsides who will be doing the translating today (Giving Leto) a rest. I’ve known Ilias for a number of years and he loves the Lord. We are thankful for Ilias and the translators in the house.
2. I’ve had an unbelievable 2 weeks, very heavy schedule. I’ve asked the Lord to be able to stay up till 2am and wake up at 5 am, and have all that energy. I’ve being thinking about being the Church, and that Christ is committed to us. We always preach about whether we are committed to Him, but I felt the Lord asking “Do you know how much I am committed to you?” John 3: 16 comes to mind amongst many other verses, which we know so well that we forget the meaning.
3. I have 2 points today. Firstly, “Do you know how much Christ is committed to His Church, His Bride?” Ephesians 3: 8 Paul writes “… the unsearchable riches of Christ”. During my prayer this morning, I asked the Lord, “How do I communicate to you and to myself the unsearchable riches of Christ. This means that we can never completely explore, never understand the riches of Christ. Paul however, wanted to preach about these unsearchable riches of Christ. I actually cried thinking about how rich I am. I don’t know how rich I am because the riches are unsearchable and how Jesus is committed to us. There are 256 names for Jesus in the Bible. That is so amazing that one name isn’t enough for Him, He has the Name above every other name. Where do we start to understand how great He is. He is the Father to the orphan, the Husband to the widow, the bright morning star. In the desert He’s the cloud by day and the fire by night. He’s the Lily of the valley, the honey from the rock. He prepares a table for you in the presence of your enemies. He is the brightness of the glory of God, the King of Glory, the cup that never runs dry, the government rests on His shoulders. How do you explain Jesus – He’s our Saviour, King of kings, Lord of lords, the greatest expert in any field, He turns water into wine, He created the Virgin birth thus astounding the biologists. He broke the law of physics when He ascended into heaven, the best doctor ever – healing without a prescription.
4. He had no servants but they called Him Master, He had no degree but they called Him Doctor, He committed no crime but they crucified Him, buried in a tomb, which couldn’t keep Him there, death couldn’t hold Him down. This Jesus is committed to you, so our first question shouldn’t be “are you committed to Him” but it should be “do you know how committed Jesus is to you”. He gave His all for you 2 Corinthians 8:9 and then in Romans 5: 6, and in 2 Corinthians 5: 15, is He committed? YES He IS! This is the “I AM” Sometimes Christians doubt – is He really God? It happens to all of us. But we live in a day when Jesus lets us know that He loves us, He will never leave us. The God, the I AM, knocked the soldiers off their feet when they came to arrest Him. He wants to live in you and He wants you to know Him more and more, how rich you are. We need nothing else if He is with us.
5. The Jews knew He was God from Exodus chapter 3, where He said I AM. He wants to build His Church today on the confession of who He is. The I AM is committed to us today. In John’s gospel Jesus declared 7 times that He is the I AM – the Bread of Life, the Light of the World. Each “I AM” represents a spiritual need for everybody on earth. Jesus doesn’t want to build us on a religion, but to build us on Him. Jesus is bigger than any system or theology.
6. Nothing but Jesus can stand against what is coming. And storms are coming, but He is committed to us. Jesus lived before He was born – that’s amazing. Even Napoleon said that “Christianity is about finding Jesus, not finding a Church. If you find Jesus, He’ll lead you to the right church. As the Bread of Life, Jesus is the main meal and we feast on Him. As the Light of the world, when He came into the world, He switched on the Light and exposed the ugliness of sin and darkness, religious systems and the sin in our hearts and He wants to bring His Light in. We hurt Him when we sin because the light is in us.
7. Jesus wasn’t put on trial for what He did, but for who He was. Jesus wants to reign on every kingdom in our hearts, every moment of every day. Because the Light is in us, we shine for Jesus wherever we go. He also says that He is the door, the only way in and nothing can come in that shouldn’t be there. He says, I AM the GOOD shepherd. Sheep need a shepherd because they aren’t very intelligent. We can never go beyond being a sheep without God. Like the shepherds of old, Jesus may throw a stone near you to frighten you, saying don’t go there. He says I AM the Resurrection and the Life. He declared this when Lazarus died. He always comes at the right time, sometimes it is better to resurrect than to heal us.
8. John 15: 1 He says that He is the true Vine, He wants us connected to Him, because He is committed to us. Fruit expresses that we are attached to the Vine, the fruit being the character of Jesus to the world. You’ll become a prayer force. You can ask of Him and it shall be done. I AM the Way the Truth and the Life. We cannot go to Heaven without Jesus. He is sitting at the right hand of the Father this minute, praying for us, you and me.
9. What about our commitment to Him. Many Disciples left Him during His 3 ½ year journey to the cross, and He asked the 12 if they also wanted to leave Him, but Peter answered and said, “To whom must we go, You have the words of life”. Like Joshua before he died, gathered the 12 tribes of Israel and said to them “Decide today whom you will serve, the previous gods of your fathers, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord”. We are committed to Him because of His greatness.
10. The ultimate reason to believe in Him is that He is almighty God. Even if you never see Jesus perform great miracles, He gives you the choice to believe in Him. He says “My Words are Spirit and Life. Taste and see that I am good”. There is no life apart from Jesus. To love Him we must be free of sin, otherwise our heart is divided. He is asking this morning, ‘will you also leave?” True Christians are committed to Him, and what we do for Him will count in the end. Luke 14: 25-33, tells us the true test to being a follower of Christ. Jesus is making it clear that there is only a narrow door by which to be saved. You or your family cannot save you. God must change your heart and then you will want to do what Jesus wants us to do.
11. If He is so committed to us, should we also not be committed to Him – He loves you and me so much and so we get to love each other and to love Him together. The Lord wants to use us to turn the world upside down, so that one day we will be in heaven together. Jesus knows our names and He will never leave us or forsake us.