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Grace-based biblical teaching and sermons with Pastor Jason White. Messages that focus on Life in Christ and practical application as New Covenant believers.
So last week we began a new sermon series on spiritual disciplines, and it was kind of an introduction to the series.
And one of the things we said was that spiritual disciplines are not the goal. Many of us have made a spiritual discipline checklist the goal of the Christian life. They are the things we are supposed to be doing, and if we are doing them, then we are good Christians.
And when approaching them that way, we’ve made spiritual disciplines the end goal. But spiritual disciplines are a means to an end, not the end themselves.
The goal is to experience the abundant life and intimacy that we have in a spiritual union and relationship with Jesus Christ.
And spiritual disciplines are there to lead us into experiencing intimacy with Christ…deeper into the fellowship and relationship we have with Him!
And so one of the things we talked about is how the spiritual disciplines are like rhythms of grace that we get into and lead us to experience a truly intimate relationship with Him.
We even looked at how Eugene Peterson used this phrase when he was paraphrasing what Jesus said in Matthew 11 in The Message Bible…
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
“Unforced rhythms of grace.” As we walk with Jesus, He will lead us into rhythms of grace that allow us to live freely and lightly…unburdened by performance and checklists…into a relationship with Himself that is so rich and so intimate and so fulfilling and satisfying that we can truly rest.
And so in this series, we are talking about these various rhythms that Jesus will lead us into in our journey and walk with Him…
And during our introduction last week, we laid the foundation for the first rhythm of grace which we said was AWARENESS.
Developing an awareness of God’s omnipresence. His constant presence in our lives and His desire to walk intimately with Him in all places and at all times.
And as we develop that rhythm of being acutely aware of God’s presence in our lives in all places, then we begin to realize that He is speaking to us in hundreds or thousands of ways each and every day no matter where we are at or what we are doing.
And when we realize that and ask Jesus to open our eyes to see Him and hear how He is speaking to us, then we get into this rhythm of not just knowing that He is there but a rhythm of actually experiencing His presence each and every day...
But I told you last week that one of the things that will help us recognize Jesus’ presence in our lives and how He is speaking to us, is for us to be more aware of His personality.
Because intimacy in relationships happen through our personalities, and Jesus being fully God and fully human, has a personality.
John Eldredge has written a book about this…about the personality of Jesus and learning to experience intimacy with Him through an awareness of His personality. We even looked at this quote from the book, Beautiful Outlaw…
If you do not know Jesus as a person, know his remarkable personality – playful, cunning, fierce, impatient with all that is religious, kind, creative, generous, funny – you have been cheated. If you do not experience Jesus intimately, daily, in these very ways, if you do not know the comfort of his actual presence, do not hear his voice speaking to you personally – you have been robbed. If you do not know the power of his indwelling life in you, shaping your personality, healing your brokenness, enabling you to live as he did – you have been plundered.”
And so today, we are still talking about the RHYTHM OF AWARENESS but developing it a bit more thoroughly. Learning to be aware not just of His presence but of His personality and aware of how we can experience the intimate relationship we are created to have on that level.
Now there is no way we have time to unpack everything about the personality of Jesus, and so today, I really just want to take a deep dive into one aspect of Jesus’ personality. I may mention a few others, but I want to talk about this one because I think for a lot of us, it will really help unlock the intimacy that many of us may be missing in our relationship with Him.
THE PLAYFULNESS OF JESUS
And here’s the deal…even as I say this phrase, my guess is that for many of you, that makes you a little bit uncomfortable…having a difficult time even thinking about Jesus being playful or funny.
Because in some ways it probably feels a bit irreverent…Jesus is holy, He is God, and He is to be worshiped and bowed down to…
And if you are thinking that, you are right. He is God! Yeah, He is all powerful, all knowing, and holy. He is sitting on the throne above all things.
This is the same God that John describes in Revelation 4 where John says this…
8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “ ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.” 9 Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: 11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”
So as we can see, there is no denying that Jesus is holy and to be worshiped, bowed down to, and praised. And in our relationship with Him, the Spirit will lead us into that posture for sure.
But let’s also look at a couple of things around this idea of Jesus being playful. First, Jesus here is being referenced as our Creator… the One who created all things.
So, here is something I’d like for you to think about: Would you agree that you can learn a lot about an artist by what it is that they create? If you see a painting or a sculpture by an artist, it is in some way a reflection of who they are…their personality.
Well the Bible describes Jesus as an artist. In Eph. 2:10, we are said to be God’s workmanship or his masterpiece and as one of His pieces of art, who we are speaks of Him as an artist.
So, as an Artist, He has created all of the things we see in nature, and in some ways they speak of Him (General Revelation)… We learn something about Jesus by looking at His artistic creation.
Okay, so can I just show you some of the animals that Jesus created? Look at some of these animals and tell me that Jesus wasn’t being playful when He created them… (PICTURES OF FUNNY ANIMALS)
So I just think in one way, we see Jesus is playful from creation. And listen… speaking of creation…He created laughter! He made us with personalities, feelings, emotions, mouths that can smile and voices that can make noises that come out of us only when things are funny.
Where does that come from? It’s a reflection of Him…WE ARE MADE IN HIS IMAGE REMEMBER?
Okay so we can see Jesus is playful from Him as Creator… Now again, being our Creator and our Lord, that also makes Him worthy of being praised. He is to be worshiped as described in Rev. 4.
But let’s also remember this: The same Jesus that John was describing in Rev. 4, is the same Jesus who was born as a baby into this world and had real life relationships with other people.
And if we see some evidence of Jesus being playful through His creation, and that He created laughter, then don’t you think that the disciples would have seen some evidence of Jesus being playful, laughing, and having fun with them throughout their lives together?
Of course! And I think we even see some of that in the way that the disciples wrote about their life with Jesus in the gospels…Let me show you… Mt. 17:24-27
24 After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?” 25 “Yes, he does,” he replied. When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?” 26 “From others,” Peter answered. “Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. 27 “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”
I mean, listen Jesus could have just told him go grab some money out of a stash they had somewhere… And also, if He wanted to do a miracle, he could have just made one appear in Peter’s pocket and given it to them, but NO, what does he do?
Go catch a fish and look in his mouth and a coin will be there. How do you picture Peter reacting?
See, we read these stories as if there is no personality and emotions going on…they were humans. I mean, if Jesus tells me this, I’m going “Say what? Come Jesus is this a joke? Are you serious?”
I mean, can you imagine Peter going to the lake and sitting out there fishing going “This is stupid…why am I here?...like there is going to be a coin in a fish’s mouth…I may not even catch a fish. Then wham, he catches the fish.
Can you imagine him opening that fishes mouth hesitantly…and then just busting into laughter? I think we see Jesus being playful here. Having fun…in relationship with His friends.
Let’s look at another…In Luke 24, we read about two guys who were walking on the road to Emmaus on Resurrection Sunday. And Luke tells us that Jesus after rising from the dead, walks up beside these guys and says, “Hey what are you guys talking about?”
And Luke tells us that these guys are like, “Umm, you must not be from around here, like You don’t know what’s been happening here over the last few days?”
And do you know what Jesus says? He’s like, “What things?” I mean are you kidding me? If there is anyone who knew what kind of things were going on it would have been Jesus, right? He was the one in the middle of the action, getting beaten, nailed to a cross, and put in a tomb.
And Jesus says, sarcastically “Oh man, that sounds like there’s been some big things going on here…what are they?”
And another thing to consider here: Jesus has just walked away from the grave after dying for the sins of the world…what kind of mood do you think He was in? Do you think He might have been a little cheerful? Just a little excited? Of course! So what is He doing?
He’s being playful with these guys. And he even goes on walking with them in disguise for quite some time, pretending not to know what was going on until finally He reveals Himself to these guys.
So, when we consider what is going on here, Jesus’ behavior is either just flat out bizarre or He’s being playful. And given that this is the God of a playful creation and the morning that He has just risen from the dead, I’m going to put my money on Him being playful.
So what does this mean for us?
Well, if we see that #1, Jesus created laughter, #2, that it appears He was being playful through things we see in His creation, and #3, that the disciples experienced laughter and playfulness with Jesus, then it’s also one of the ways that we will experience intimacy with Jesus too!
Now again, we are not discounting Jesus’ deity, His holiness, and that we’ll bow down and worship Him as the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. As the disciples walked with Jesus, there were times they were in awe of Him and His power and times when they laughed together.
And listen, maybe it helps to think of it in a similar way to maybe a relationship with an earthly dad, a coach, or someone in authority over you. I mean, growing up, my dad was in authority over me. I respected Him, but I also laughed with him and joked with him.
What I am trying to get us to consider is being AWARE of Jesus’ personality. (SLIDE)
I think most of us know and are in kind of a rhythm of being aware of Jesus’ presence in our lives leading us to worship Him…
But I don’t know if we are aware of His personality. And as we said earlier, playfulness isn’t the only aspect of His personality. Jesus is fiercely intentional in regard to His mission and Kingdom work, extravagantly generous with us and through us towards other people, and even disruptively honest with us about things in our lives that need attention…
So, what we want to be doing is looking and getting into a rhythm of being acutely aware of Jesus’ presence in our lives and how He might be speaking to us through His personality in hundreds or thousands of ways throughout each of our days.
Let me give you one example that John Eldrege tells about how this played out in his own life…
John said “If I didn't know Jesus was playful, and if our relationship didn't allow me to receive a playful tease, I might have missed Jesus speaking to me in that moment.”
How have you missed Jesus speaking to you through a playful tease? How have you missed Jesus speaking to you through His personality?
Jesus desires an intimate relationship with you. He wants you to experience intimacy with Him through His personality and your personality.
And so the first RHYTHM OF GRACE that I believe all of the others pretty much hinge upon is the developing the RHYTHM OF AWARENESS.
Being acutely aware throughout the day that again Jesus is with you at all times and in all places throughout your day. But not just present, He’s speaking to you…desiring for you to experience a relationship with Him all throughout your day.
Are you looking for Him? This week, I invite you to be intentional about getting into a rhythm of awareness and looking for how Jesus is inviting you into a deeper experience of intimacy with Him through His presence and His personality.