Message Topic: What motivates you as a Christian?
Scripture text: John 5: 19-25
The bible has a cast of thousands, but some of them play more important roles than others. Here are eleven of the prime players in the bible, from the first humans to Bible prophets to Apostles to Jesue himself. Of course, the most important in the Bible is God, but because God isn’t a person he doesn’t appear in this collection.
First we have Adam and Eve.
Adam and Eve are two people, but they are inseparable. Even the bible refers to them as one flesh in recognition of their coming from the same flesh (Adam) and being joined together again in marital sexual union.
Adam and Eve are important because, according to the Bible , they’re the first two people in the world. And from them, comes everyone who ever lived.
The human drama begins when God formed Adam from the ground and breathes life into him. God then performs the first surgery, creating Eve from Adam’s side (a more literal translation then rib.)
Adam and Eve live together in paradise (or what the Bible calls the garden of Eden) until they disobey God by eating fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
This act of defiance, called “the fall” by many theologians, is a real bummer because from it comes painful childbirth, weeds in your gardens, and ultimately death. Moreover, Adam and Eve’s disobedience introduce fear and alienation into humankind’s formerly perfect relationships with God and one another. As evidence of this alienation, Adam and Eve’s son, Cain, murders his brother.
I would like for you to keep in your minds as we go through these names of people who are listed in the bible the one whom you would be motivated to follow.
The next person we are about to look at is Noah.
Noah is most famous for building an ark-a giant three-decked wooden box in which he, his family, and a whole bunch of animals ride our a massive flood that God sends to destroy humankind for its disobedience. God chooses Noah and his family to survive the deluge because Noah is the most righteous in his generation. Noah is important not only because his ark decorates most nurseries in north America but also because, according to the Bible, if Noah hadn’t been righteous, none of us would be here right now.
Now let’s look at a man called Abraham.
The Bible is filled with stories about people disobeying God. One notable exception is Abraham, a man who, though not perfect, obeys God’s command to leave his homeland in Mesopotamia and venture to an unknown promised land (ancient Canaan; later Israel). God promises Abraham that his descendants will become a great nation, through which all the people of the earth will be blessed.
The tales of Abraham and his wife, Sarah, are a roller coaster of dramatic events that repeatedly jeopardize God’s promise. Ironically, the biggest threat to God’s promise is when God Himself commands Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Abraham sets out to do just as God orders, but right before Abraham delivers the fatal blow to his own child, God stops the sacrifice. As a reward for Abraham’s faith, God fulfills His promise to make Abraham’s descendants a great nation, as Isaac’s Jacob, eventually has 12 sons, whose descendants became the nation of Israel.
Next there is this man Moses.
The Hebrew Bible describes Moses as the greatest prophet who ever lived, and for good reason. Moses is born during hard times for ancient Israel. Israelites are enslaved in Egypt, and their growing population so alarms the Egyptians that the Egyptian king orders all newborn Israelites male drowned in the Nile River.
Moses’s mother saves her son’s life by placing him in the Nile in a reed basket, where he is soon discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter, who ironically raised Moses in the royal palace. After forty years, he was cast out of Egypt for killing an Egyptian who was beating an Israelite slave.
Eventually, God appears to Moses in a burning bush and tells him that he must return to Egypt to deliver the Israelites from their slavery. With God’s help, Moses succeeds in his mission, bringing the Israelites to Mount Sinai, where God first appeared to him. at mount Sinai, God gives Moses the law, including the Ten Commandments. Moses eventually leads the Israelites to the edge of their Promised Land (ancient Canaan, where he died at the age of 120 years.
Here comes a popular man of God, David.
David was Israel’s second and greatest king. As a boy, David courageously defeats a mighty enemy warrior named Goliath with only a sling and a stone. As a man David conquers all Israel’ enemies and begins a dynasty that would rule Jerusalem for nearly 500 years. But not all the news surrounding David is good. He perpetrates one of the Bible’s most heinous crimes: He commits adultery with a woman named Bathsheba, who’s the wife of one of David’s most loyal soldiers, Uriah.
Then to cover up his crime, he had Uriah killed. When the prophet Nathan confronts David with his sin, David repents. Moreover, in God’s favor, God forgives him for his sin, but not without punishing him for his crime.
Elijah is another Godly man mentioned in the Bible:
He was one of Israel’s greatest prophets, as well as God’s heavyweight champ in an epic bout against a deity named Beal (the Canaanite storm god). In order to prove to the Israelites that God is the only true God, Elijah gathers the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel, where for the main event each deity is given a pile of wood with a bull on it. The god who can produce fire and consume the sacrifice wins. Baal went first, and for half the day his prophets dance, shout, sing, and even cut themselves in order to convince their god to answer Elijah’s challenge. when their efforts fail, Elijah prays to God, who immediately sends fire down from the sky and consumes the sacrifice, so the Israelites rededicate themselves to God, and they kill the prophets who deceived them into worshiping Baal.
Later, near the Jordan River, a fiery horse drawn chariot descends from the sky and takes Elijah to heaven, but not before he appoints a successor named Elisha. Elijah’s departure influenced later biblical prophets, who predicted that Elilah would return as a precursor to the coming of the Messiah.
Next we have Isiah as a notable prophet.
Isaiah is one of the most influential prophets in the Hebrew Bible. During his career, Isaiah advises several kings of Juda, helping them to avoid being destroyed by the mighty Assyrians Empire. Beyond Isaiah’s influence, he is a masterful poet, with many of his prophecies inspiring hope for eventual peace and righteousness on earth. Several of these prophecies were later understood by Christians to be predictions of Jesus, including the birth of Immanuel: the coming of the prince of peace, as quoted in Handel’s Messiah; and the suffering of God’s “Servants” for the sins of His people. Let us not forget Mary.
Being Jesus’s mother, as you might imagine, is bound to put you in the theological limelight, and Mary holds this office with dignity and grace.
Betrothed to Joseph at a young age, Mary become pregnant under mysterious circumstances. two of the four gospels claim that God is the father of her baby, but because of the silence of the other two gospels, as well as lack of this being mentioned by Peter and Paul, it seems the doctrine of Jesus’s virgin birth wasn’t emphasized in the early Church- though it certainly did dominate later.
The picture of Mary in the gospel is one of a concerned and loving mother who doesn’t fully understand her son at times, but supports him to the end, even painfully witnessing his execution at the foot of the cross.
Then there has to be Jesus:
The New Testament’s story of Jesus is as fascinating as it is inspiring. Born and raised in the backwaters of the Roman Empire, Jesus became a religious movement that eventually overtakes the Empire. According to the New Testament, Jesus is the Messiah (anointed one, Greek Christos) the promised deliverer of Israel, whose death on the cross brings deliverance from sin, and whose eventual return to earth will bring deliverance from oppression by ushering in God’s kingdom. Jesus’s message of caring for the downtrodden, extending kindness to strangers, and loving one’s enemies is still unrivaled for the profound insight and penetrating simplicity.
Now here comes Peter.
Jesus affectionately gives his closest friend, Simon, the nickname “Rocky” though the Greek form of the name is Peter. Peter is a fisherman until Jesus calls him to be a disciple or a fisher of men. Peter soon became the “rock” on which Jesus would build his church, even giving him the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
Therefore, according to Catholic doctrine, Peter is the first Pope, the vicar (or substitute) of Christ: but even Jesus’s closest confidant betrays him, as on the eve of the crucifixion Peter denies knowing Jesus three times. Following Jesus’s death, Peter spreads Christianity abroad, and while in Rome, tradition holds that in 64 C.E., Nero has Peter crucified upside-down, a request peter makes so as not to denigrate Jesus’s death. His tomb is now encased within St. Peter’s Basilica.
Another of these men was Paul.
Paul (or Saul, as he is first called) is arguable the person most responsible for spreading Christianity throughout the Mediterranean region, on its way to becoming the religion of the Roman Empire. Paul’s efforts to convert people to Christianity are all the more remarkable since, when we first meet Paul, he is vigorously attempting to stamp out this movement because he believes that its message contradicts the teachings of the Hebrew Bible.
Then, one day, while Paul is traveling to Damascus to arrest Christians, Jesus appears to him in a blinding flash of light and tells Paul his effort against Christians are what contradict the teachings of the Hebrew Bible, because Jesus is God’s promised Messiah.
Paul spent the rest of his life spreading the good news about Jesus’s life and teachings throughout the Roman world, suffering intensely for a movement he was once bent on destroying.
You have heard a little of the lives of these remarkable, people, so what is it that motivates you, that you choses to be a Christian?
One of the most powerful chapters in all literature describes the highest level of motivation.
It is truly the most powerful chapter written. It records Jesus describing why He got up every day. Then Jesus answered and said to them, most assuredly, I say to you, the son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.
For the father loves the son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and he will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel, I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me, John 5:19-20- 30.
What got Jesus out of bed every day of his life was to do the will of the Father. He was totally motivated by love for His Father and His desire to please him.
It was that love and desire to please the Father that filled His being with love for the human race and His desire to heal, reconcile and restore mankind to God’s original design for mankind. Now what is your answer to the question; what is it that motivates you to be a Christian?