100 Chronological messages in...

At Anchor, we have spent the last three years studying every single chronological section of the life/ministry of Jesus, and today we reached our 100th message within the sequence. So, in a rather ecstatic echoing of John 1, I today offered just some of our learnings-together, and thought they'd be a joyous "charge" for our Monday:

100 messages into the life and ministry of Jesus, what do we know of Jesus? 

My friends, Jesus is not only prehistoric—the founder and inventor of Time and history—He, simply, is. Before there was even a notion such as being (or to be), He already had-been-being. “Beginning” began with Him, you see. He was sitting there next to the Father, giving Voice (His voice) to the whole of Creation. For He was—He is—God. If you want to understand and plumb the depths of the definition and the mysteries of the God of the universe, look at Jesus.

And what will you see? You will see the most wondrously creative, brilliant, imaginative, joyful Personality you could ever hope to encounter. You will see a One so powerful, so glorious that—apart from the life He is—everything else is a nothing. Meeting Him, you will have met… LIFE. That life—so wonderful to behold in Him—so magnificent in the fact that He offers it to others—is of the most illuminating quality. It is a life that, fundamentally, is light; is alight. It is sheer wondrous luminescent brilliance.

And, let’s see… what else? Oh, how about that—from the beginning of the Beginning—He’d already decided upon making a personal visit into our midst?! And, how about that—even if we should be foolish enough not to receive Him, or pay Him notice—He relentlessly would keep on loving us?! And, how about that—for those who’d simply turn His way and even begin paying Him attention—He would do the following: teach us how to follow in His footsteps; seat us NOW at the family table; and, most astonishingly, impart to us His own Child-of-God nature and inward experience?!! 

PURPOSE—BELONGING—IDENTITY: He says, You got it!

But how in the wide-world-of-seeming-impossibilities would He actually render such a radical experience to fools and idiots like us? Oh, I’m so glad you asked! 

He became our Friend. Closer than a brother. He took on flesh to insure everything I’ve already said. He simultaneously showed the absolutely-human side of His “withness” while, at the very same time, overwhelming us with His absolute-Godness. He, day by day, lavished His friends and family, everyone He met—strangers, even His enemies—with grace upon grace. In fact,—in His person—in His personal living-breathing, walking-talking Way of life—He did something so unexpected you’d never expect it…

He, personally, fulfilled His own holy Law. Then… demolished it. Then, personally, He lived and taught and exemplified a New Way of Relating to God and Man… and then put all that within us. 

My friends, have you ever thought: If only I could see God, really know Him, hear from Him, then I’d have everything that was necessary?

Well, here’s the goodest of the Good News-es of the Gospel: You… already… do. 

Having Jesus… you already have EVERYTHING.