Why is Jesus Important? Laborer's Podcast

The Cross as the Center of Christian Life

Cling to the cross then put both arms around it. Hold to the crucified and never let him go. I'm a fresh to the cross at this moment and rest there now and forever. Then with the power of God resting upon you go forth and preach the cross.

Christmas, Family, and Why Jesus Is Important

Welcome up. Welcome to the labors podcast. We are sorry that we missed last week. We'll be catching up next week on our Regular podcast, but this is a special Christmas edition. I've got my brothers Tyler and Troy with me tonight.

Welcome guys. How are you doing?

Pretty good.

Happy to be here.

I was listening to that intro for the conference if you have not Registered for the conference, please go and do so go to labors conference calm. It's gonna be great for. Our aim is to help the local church When it comes to helping Congregants grow in their faith unity fellowship With good teaching and we're bringing a diverse Perspective to the table and and the conference is free.

So we'd love for you to to register for that conference support us help us out. It's in next April the last weekend in April 2025 in Newton, North Carolina at Vertical Life Church. So go register. We love love to see you there.

I was listening to that intro and it reminded me I Tried to get an AI voice even though It doesn't sound very natural to use an AI voice at this point. I mean some people can find a good one and then I ran out of my free trial.

So I Couldn't use the AI voice and so I decided to record myself saying it then I had to record it several times. Because as I would go back and listen to it I don't like my own voice because I don't I don't have a natural radio voice that would be fantastic to have for such a program as this but when I would say cross I Would notice that my accent would come in I was like I've got to figure out the right Annunciation so I don't sound like I'm I'm from the country that I'm.

It took several times for me to get that right. But yeah, let's talk about. Let's talk about Christmas family and faith and why Jesus is important. Guys the reason why this topic has been on my heart and I and I know the answer I want to throw this out there.

The gospel is the answer the gospel is the only thing that can change somebody's heart that open their eyes to Turn them to Christ to see why he is important to understand that he is precious. And I know it's the the gospel and the Holy Spirit using the gospel.

The truth of his word. But you know, I'm I think about family members that I have That have been brought up brought up in church that know the gospel but They do not seem to cling to that gospel to cling to the cross.

And.

I just want to say to them Jesus is Important. Jesus is so important and and not. Not this life not this life that you're living not the things of this world, but Jesus is important. And so I wanted to talk about why Jesus was important.

And like I said, I know the gospel, you know is the only way only means God has it's his plan a for converting a soul opening their eyes. But um if you were to talk to a family member and Express to them why Jesus is important if you were to have able to have that conversation What would you say to them if.

If I'm talking to a family member about why Jesus is important you know where where I'm gonna start is is In the big it's gonna have to come from the fact that that Jesus is God. He's not just a normal person.

I feel like that is something that our culture or civilization has has done is like oh, well Yes, Jesus is the Savior. Yes, you got to believe in Jesus. You just kind of take Jesus with you throughout your life, and it's really this.

This thing like yeah, you do you just take Jesus with you while you while you do you and. That's not what I see. And and so if I'm if I'm telling people I'm telling people look Jesus is God I often phrase it.

And.

Actually is a Christian rapper named flame who's a Lutheran in all honesty. That just says he says, you know, we believe that. That God became a man in the form of a Palestinian Jew 2 ,000 years ago and and and just that just that simple statement.

Gets rid of all this air fluff of it's if it's like almost a Gnostic thing. It gets rid of everything it gets down to the core of the faith of like look that like I believe. This is real. This is what Christianity teaches.

It's not about you living a better life. It's not about You doing more good things than bad things. This is I worship God. Who was? Who became man who took on flesh in Jesus Christ? And really where I Probably would go for that is is to move into the gospel from that it was love that did all of that.

Probably starting in in in Philippians and Philippians 2. Yeah, and and so if I'm sharing it with somebody that that knows the gospel but doesn't quite seem to be living it out or or Doesn't necessarily grasp the the severity of it because I all of us here are in the Bible Belt, you know.

Everybody's a Christian because they were born in Tennessee or South Carolina or North Carolina, you know, if you're in the mountains, you know, you're you were. You're you're good. You know God's country.

But that's that's not the case. You know, and then of course re-emphasizing Jesus says he is the way the truth and the life no man comes to the father but through him.

And you really you really begin to delve into the statement that I kind of cling to or Formulated in my mind when I was thinking about this conversation is Jesus isn't is important. Because the simple fact that he's Jesus He's important because he's Jesus not because of what he can do for you.

Nope, yep, not because of his blessings or anything else. Jesus is important because he's Jesus. Yes, and and so it's kind of like when we think about the father We worship he he is due glory because he is God.

He can do whatever he wants Do as he pleases as Scripture says because he is he is God. He can have his own timing when it comes to The things of man because he is God it's it's how he wants to work things out.

So he is he is due glory. He is due our obedience just because he is God and same goes for Jesus he is important because he's Jesus and it's. And you touched on something that's So prevalent, especially here in the South just like you're talking about if you were to ask that question to Anybody around here is Jesus important.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Jesus is important, but that doesn't seem to reflect in Outwardly in the everyday life. And so.

You know, I and I I do want to qualify that because we're Because we're touching on it, right? I I don't think not. Everyone's gonna be a theologian. You know, not not everyone, you know, I know RC Sproul wrote a book Everyone's a theologian in which case, you know, that is kind of true.

But you know not not everyone is Called to be a pastor. Not everybody is called to be a teacher. Amen, you know, not everyone is You know apparently is meant to go That that deep into things right? But they're there there still needs to be that that sincerity not not as a form of you know.

We're setting up laws to do After salvation like look you you know, you believe you're saved now do these right? We're not we're not setting forth law like that. But we are saying like hey look there there should be something, you know, there should be more than.

You know, yeah, I do my my once-a-week thing and and I'm out You know there. He he prunes the tree, you know, he he prunes the bush that that way it yields more fruit. Over time this is you know, now we're getting into sanctification stuff.

And not everyone sanctifies at the at the same rate. You know, it's definitely not a straight upward hill. It's you know it. But gradually we are sanctified over time.

The Book of Job and Whether God Is Enough

This reminds me of a discussion I had seen on social media not too long ago. It started with a meme about the Book of Job which is how I I kind of caught wind of it because I've been working through Joe for about two years and it was a.

It was a statement about the prosperity gospel being dismantled by the Book of Job. And I read through the comments and a lot of them were actually disagreeing with the statement stating that the prosperity gospel is affirmed by the Book of Job because Job gets everything back at the end and That's something I've done a little bit of thinking about because there's nothing in the Book of Job.

Where Job is promised he's gonna get everything back. There's there's nothing in there. It's almost a surprise when we get to Verse 12 in chapter 42 when it says the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.

This is not a Because you did XYZ now, I'm gonna bless you. And the question I had thinking about that was Would God have been enough for Job if those last six or eight verses had not been there if it ended with?

Job forgiving having his friends. If that had been the last verse in the Book of Job would God have been enough for Job. If God didn't do that last section would it still be? Okay? And oftentimes I think that's Where we're going when we talk about the worth of God that he doesn't have to give us the stuff.

Kind of what Troy was saying just now go to God for God essentially is God enough in the valley that we don't need anything else is God more than just what he can do for us and.

Of course.

Job does get all of his stuff back and I don't think that's because of how he suffered or how he Learned from God. I think that's a gift. That just as his suffering was not deserved. Getting it back wasn't a reward.

But God in his wisdom in his grace in his love Sought fit to give Job a gift and he blesses him more so in the latter part of his life than in the beginning. Not because of Joe's character, but because of God's.

And I think one of the overarching themes of the Book of Job is Weighing our sufferings in light of the character of God is in Noting that God could end the suffering at any time because God. But that there's something some value in the suffering that draws us closer to God.

That there's something we we can see in the character of God even when life isn't going perfectly. I was talking with my pastor a little bit about this and on the way he put it was that Americans aren't Christians because we don't need God in America.

We've we've made things way too easy. Things are so perfectly tuned in a lot of ways that we don't need God in our mindset the way the typical American mind God is a commodity. It's something to slap on when things get hard.

But when it's five minutes to the nearest hospital God becomes often an afterthought. There's not that's that. Constant dependence a lot of times on God that at the breath I have in my lungs is a gift from God day in and day out.

Now why is Jesus important. Because we need him because apart from him we can do nothing. There's no maverick molecule in God's universe that there's not we're not off doing our own thing and God's just gonna Circle back around when when life gets tough, but that God has been holding our hand the whole way.

Whether we wanted to him there or not.

Jesus as God, the Incarnation, and the Way, the Truth, and the Life

You made me think about something. That's something else. That's prevalent in in our Area in the Bible belt is that Jesus becomes important again to us when we have children. I mean you see that a lot.

He's he's kind of pushed aside and then he's thought of as important again when we have children.

In.

The sense we need to get them in church so that they can have Some morality talk to them or something. So Jesus Jesus is in a sense just some morality for our children. It's an authority structure. Yeah.

Yeah, but then you're just Continuing that cycle with them as well because they're gonna they're gonna grow up and put Jesus aside because He was just used as some boundaries for morality to teach them some How to live good.

But yeah, he only he only becomes important when we have children. You'll you'll run off and so your wild oats and then you know, once you get married have children. Oh, Jesus. He becomes important again.

How I think you said something? Really important and amazing. And that Job's ability to Endure was a gift. And then the reward we probably shouldn't even say reward. But God's blessing in the end was the gift so both circumstances was a gift from God and.

And the same thing is true. I mean, that's that's one of the things that's consistent with God and how he deals with man all throughout History. Same thing is true with salvation. Salvation is a gift and then the fruit that we bear is a gift and then anything that he desires to give to us.

That's What even even things that are hard we're to view them as.

As.

Gifts from God because they they are used to chastise us or mold us make us into who he wants us to be. The that's a beautiful point to understand that. All these circumstances are gifts from God.

Yeah, and that is one of the hard lessons that God has has for us sometimes is that is his sovereignty in the stake. That that the the hard stuff that we go through is in some sense ordained by God. To use an example a Lot of people feel that their parents are not ideal and at the end of the day God gave us the parents he did.

That he could have given us different parents he could have given us. He could have given us Billy grandparents. They were like the super pastors, but he didn't. He gave us a Imperfect centers for parents.

He gave us people we could learn from people we could disagree with people we could struggle with at times. And at the end of the day, we're called to honor them. Which is a much smaller example than Job.

Do not misunderstand me. They're not saying that my parents are my suffering. But my parents are being sanctified too and And the struggles that we may have relationally are In God's plan to that. He didn't give me good pair perfect parents.

He didn't give me perfect parents, but he gave me the parents that he wanted to give me.

We definitely need to make that into a t-shirt. God's sovereignty in the state.

Well, and and really that's it because whenever we look at At any biblical character I mean any single one of them where we're hitting the uncomfortable things of life. You know as you guys were talking I pulled up 2nd 2nd Corinthians 11 and This is this is Paul listing out all the trials that he's been to.

You.

Know he's talking about this whole. I'll list out my afflictions as they've listed out and see if see if these Air quotes super apostles that you're being led by have been here. Are they ministers of Christ?

I speak as a fool. I am more and labors more abundant and stripes above measure in prisons more frequent in deaths off of The Jews. Five times received I 40 stripes and save one. The rice I was beaten with rods once I was stoned the rice I suffered shipwreck a night and a day.

I have been in the deep right so a full night and a day. He was in the ocean in journeyings often in perils of waters and perils of robbers and perils by Mine own countrymen in perils by the heathen in perils in the city and perils in the wilderness in perils in the sea in perils among false brethren's in weariness and painfulness and watchings often in hunger and thirst and fastings often in cold and nakedness.

And just list after list after list and then you you jump over to chapter 12 Verse 7 and He says and lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations. There was given to me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure for this thing I was sought the Lord thrice three times that it might depart from me and he said unto me my grace is Sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect and weakness.

Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. And so nothing about that was was lovely at all. I do not wish to be beaten with sticks. I don't wish to be lashed.

I don't wish to be in a shipwreck. If I get in a shipwreck, I'm definitely not getting on another ship. You know, I understand that that was the way they got around back then but.

You.

Know the the promise of prosperity. This is a man that was ultimately beheaded You know sometime around if I'm not mistaken around 67 AD Beheaded That was that was God's glorious end to his life. After after all of this, so there's a different measure for it.

Your life is not come to Jesus and here are the gifts. That is not what makes Jesus important. What makes Jesus important is who he is and what he's done Always started to who he is. But the things that he has given Which is not a new car, which is not a new house, which is not A pain-free life.

It is not That that over abundance of material possessions what he has given you is every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. What he has given us is New birth he has reborn us. We we are born again.

What he has done is paid for our sins on the cross like You know and this is where it ties back into who he was with what he did. That passage I was thinking about earlier Philippians 2 it says This let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

So we're talking about Jesus Who being in the form of God? God did not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and Being found in fashion as a man.

He humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and of things in the earth and things under the earth and That every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

And and so you see out of love He's he's in heaven. He's God. He's rolling and reigning. He's sitting on his throne he is the one that Isaiah saw on the throne and Then he becomes a man born in a baby trough Born in a in a feeding trough in a barn By people that were not Kings servants, you know Mary.

And.

Grew up humbly. He you know, oftentimes throughout the Gospels, you know The Son of Man has no place to lay his head. He is a man despised and afflicted and. And so to see the condescension of God. That's that's what Christ has done that that's why he's important.

He is the atonement so let me pair that with the words of Christ for a minute. In a way, that's kind of sounds almost contradictory. Maybe we can flush this out a little bit in the live today because Matthew 11.

Verse 20 back into the verse 25 for some context. At that time Jesus answered and said I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and That revealed them unto babes.

Even so father for so it seemed good in thy sight all things are delivered unto me of my father and no man knoweth the Son, but the father neither knoweth any man. The father saved the son and he to whom Soever the son will reveal.

We look at that and we say that's a Calvinistic test except we can we can time a predestination there and then the next verse he says is Come unto me All that ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart. And ye shall find a rest unto your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

I.

Think about the transition there a lot. Because it starts off with the idea that none seek after God that all the father has has given me will come. It sounds very Calvinist thing very much like predestination.

Then he goes and makes a general Invitation if you will. But what he invites them to is rest. He invites them to take his yoke upon them. What he says is easy and his burden is light. But then we have the suffering we have the trials and the tribulations.

And trying to make us harmonize those two ideas is An interesting thought that while we suffer while we struggle it is as Christ says a light burden that the yoke of Christ is Easy. But it still hurts.

So, how would you how would you guys maybe explain that a little more. Come coming back to how we started this conversation with? Talking with somebody who does not see the value of Christ.

Sovereign Grace, Human Responsibility, and the Tension of Scripture

Well to kind of point out what you pointed out in the text. You know, this isn't this isn't even in the only spot to get around. The the fact that we see things where God is 100 sovereign and salvation clear in Scripture.

To see that man must must choose must make a decision 100 clear in Scripture. That this is the point in the conversation where we start seeing the mind of God. And it's too much for us. We can't we can't fit Some of this understanding together right because there's okay I do my actions I drop my pen I I do all of this stuff, right?

How does that fit in with God's eternal decree? You know, these are things that are too much for for us to focus on. One thing I like there's a brother at my church. He always says it because when people get in to trouble is when they start qualifying Scripture.

It's like you see you see man's responsibility all throughout the text. You know from Genesis to Revelation. You see God's God's election God's sovereign choice all the way from Genesis to Revelation and these are just.

That tension that we have to live with to go all the way on one side of it is to be a hyper Calvinist. Which is no bueno. You know right at heresy. And then to go all the way to the other side of it is to be an open theist which is.

Also, no bueno right at heresy. You know and it's the same God. That is speaking in this in this same same verses here. I mean, you know, they're. They're both written in red in this Bible and right here.

Not that you know, just as inspired if it's in black, but.

Yeah, what do you what do you think. I see I see this passage as a revealing passage. I think it's you're exactly right for when you said, you know, we can't completely never be able to completely see and understand the Best mind of God and how he operates and what he wants to do.

But this passage seems to be a revealing passage it caused me to go back to the the scripture that says They went out from from us because they weren't truly of us that was that's a revealing passage.

We didn't do the work. God did the work. But those whom God did not do the work in this circumstance caused them to go out from among us and so this seems to be another one of those passes where it's a revealing passage to where we get a glimpse of The mind and workings of God and what he's doing.

So when Tyler's right when you when you read that passage in 27, you see that limited atonement type language where And anyone to whom the Son wills Reveals him. So it's the Son's will That that reveals God to them.

Jesus gets to choose not man. Jesus gets to choose and then just like you said Tyler it sounds like a general calling like Just like we are called and commanded to make the general call of the gospel come to Christ and repentance and faith we make that general call to all men and You make the comment.

This sounds like a general call to to me come to me all who are weary and heavy laden I will give you rest. And so where this becomes a revealing passage is You see that term that language where only Jesus reveals and he chooses whom he reveals the father to and Then he says come all who are weary and heavy laden.

I will give you rest. What is revealed is? Whom the Son has chosen. Are the ones who come? For the rest. So we are not heavy and weary Until the Spirit has done a work in us and then we seek out the Son for that rest.

So that's that's how I see. This is a revealing passage.

And.

Kind of goes back to a question that I wanted to post to you guys earlier. We were talking about being legalistic earlier when we When we view those who make claim that Jesus is important But maybe their lives day in and day out do not reflect that that love for him that obedience to him.

And we observe that we see that in their life. But our approach to them could Could be in a legalistic type way. You need to you don't need to do that. You don't need to that you need to do this you need to do that.

So what would. What's a gospel approach To those whom we see that are not living day in and day out Who may profess with their mouth? Yes, Jesus is important but But daily we see they're not bearing the fruit.

And and that is the case. I mean it to me. It's a it's a biblical idea that you will bear fruit. If you are in Christ you will bear fruit. So it's to me it's a biblical concept for us to be able to observe somebody who may proclaim Christ with our mouth, but Then does not bear fruit.

So then it comes back to us How do we approach them? Do we approach them in a legalistic way, which just to me would eat? keep more.

Um.

Where's the fruit? Yeah.

Burden on them. Or do we approach them in a in a grace-filled approach? What does that grace-filled approach? Look like to somebody who's not living out their profession. I think prayer is.

The the strongest thing you do for somebody you're worried about if if you know, they have a a good gospel. You know that that they understand what it is, right? I'm not. I'm not. You know if they you know, you can talk with them about it and you can articulate it and.

You know, they know look Jesus. You know Jesus came, you know, he came because he was there before he lived a perfect sinless life and he died and he rose again.

And.

You know, I've Called on that name and that's that's the name that you know, if they have that approach, right, but you're not seeing fruit right that that's really it because we're not to. You know, you you can try to keep having like engaging conversations.

I do that with a lot of my co-workers if you work with me. You're gonna get either fun Bible stories or if you're a believer, I'm gonna ask you questions. I've got a Buddy at church right now. He's preparing a message to preach to me while we're at work on the Trinity because I asked him.

I'm like, what verse would you go to to prove the Trinity? Like where is it at?

You know, go to 1 John 5 7, right?

That that's actually the first one on his list. He didn't mention it. He didn't mention it. He blanked completely which he just had a brain, you know. Where it disappeared real quick and he's like, I don't know and he was all troubled.

And so now he's building, you know, he's he's essentially building a sermon to preach to me while I'm at work. Which I just I love the day so excited about because You know, it's getting him more engaged in the things of God getting him thinking getting him engaging with Scripture getting him you know and.

So that's one way you can ask them about, you know certain things if they're completely uninterested then you can't put. You cannot you can't throw any form of law at it that the gospel is too contrary.

To a do this do that do this do that do this. You know you have to. You have to come at it graciously and and prayer I'm gonna I'm just gonna I'm gonna land on the spiritual side of things and just pray pray pray pray.

It does make you think though. Um. Because that though I think it's been popular and used and Ray Comfort brought that out. Yeah, I mean if you've listened to any of his teaching his early teaching. He's like, you know, this is this is how he discovered the him speaking.

This is how he discovered this. This teaching was that he was studying. How? You know our forefathers in the faith how they approach the gospel and. And it's using the law in the gospel to show someone their sinfulness.

So I Guess there's a there's a legalistic way to approach somebody with the law and then there's a great field way to Approach somebody with the law, but I think you're exactly right, you know.

The.

The do this do that mentality is just going to. Bring more tension and frustration to the conversation.

Legalism, Antinomianism, and Grace-Filled Sanctification

Now it might be helpful to define and legalism a little bit because I know with my generation we kind of Might have a bit of a different view on what constitutes legalism. Because I think oftentimes what has happened is any kind of restriction is legalism so There was a book I found very helpful on this by Sinclair Ferguson called the whole Christ.

Where he talked about what we call antinomianism and what we call legalism and those are basically two sides of the same coin because in both camps there you have a faulty view of God and Of of God's law and of his grace.

That you you have to have a whole view of what Christ Accomplished that he fulfilled the law but there's still sanctification there's still obedience and that Essentially the rejection of the law with antinomianism is not different from the overemphasis of the law in Legalism because they're both seeing the law as divorced from the heart of God.

Then there's no delight in the law. It's just something you have to do. There's no delight in obedience it's just something you either have to do or don't and In my generation, it's very easy that we hear legalism and we just we call it purity culture now.

That's that's the big thing is it's purity culture. And if you're trying to tell me Where I can go or what I can do. You're just you're a purity culture. You're restricting Baptist or whatever. Even if the restriction is a loving boundary, and I think that's one of the outlooks that could be corrected is Starting to see the loving boundaries and while there there is a form of legalism that we should oppose Two-handedly now that this is not good to present the law as a Means of saying I'm a Christian.

It's probably not helpful on to base Your view of a person standing with God based on how they dress when they come to church or whether or not they chew tobacco. That's not of God in fact, I think there's a passage in I forget where we're called that doctrines of demons.

Where it's very close to what we would consider legalism with Going beyond the bounds of Scripture and Going off of things like like what we eat and saying this is of God. And Paul says no, that's a that's a doctrine of demons to go off of the days to go off of what we eat what we wear this is probably closer to Legalism than in cessation ism, which is how we often interpret that text.

But Paul straight up calls legalism demonic.

Yep.

We can work with that. To take the law and separate it from the heart of a good God is demonic. I think there's a.

Whenever we think about legalism Throwing out more of an understanding on it legalism is Isn't is an extreme over as Tyler said an extreme Over-emphasis on the law and so normally it will play out like this it will go.

Well, if you're saved you're going to be doing this you're going to be reading the Bible every day. If you're you know a woman you're gonna be wearing. You're gonna be wearing this. If you're a man, you're gonna be wearing this.

You're not gonna be doing this. You're not gonna be doing this and if you do any of those things it will cause me to question your salvation. And it's it's really that becomes the standard. And then of course antinomian ism.

It is it literally means no law. But there's one there's one just right before Legalism. That I think is also dangerous where where we end up and it's and it's the it's the pietism gospel.

And.

So what it is is essentially now that I'm saved I've got to do these things. Now that I'm saved I've got a you know, I don't want to fall out of the will of God. So like I better be in my Bible every day and you basically end up setting up a law to yourself.

Which is which is also just just no good. You know Christ Christ finished the work he paid the sin debt. It is labeled all throughout scriptures. To tell us die it is finished, you know. Transaction completed.