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TRANSCRIPT:

This week we are going to look at the fourth habit of highly missional people from Michael Frost’s book, “Surprise the World.” The habit he encourages is that of learning Jesus.

That’s an interesting concept most likely unfamiliar to modern Christians. It wasn’t an unfamiliar concept to Christians in the early years of this Jesus movement, but it is one which can transform us and the lives of those around us.

In this chapter, Frost says that in the early days of the Christian movement, conversion involved denying the pagan Gods and entering a period of catechism, committing oneself to an intensive study of the person and work of Jesus.

As we study the Gospels more closely, we will begin to learn Jesus by becoming more intimate with Him and more open to hearing the prompting of the Spirit. Because of this growing intimacy with Jesus, we will then seek to conform our lives more and more to his will.

But even more important is that by learning Jesus, we will be able to clearly and passionately share the hope we have in Jesus. In previous chapters of our study book, we are called to become people with intriguing lives so that people will want to know why we are the way we are.

When I served as a pastor in a previous community, I well remember the day that a young man came into my office to tell me that he had begun a relationship with Jesus. This man had been nominally involved in the church up to this point, only attending worship when he and his family happened to feel like it.

At his workplace, he had noticed one of his coworkers was different. Over the years of interacting with this other man, he came to the point of wanting the calm, peace and joy he saw in him. And so, one day, he asked his coworker, “What’s different about you? I’ve noticed something in you, and I want it too.”

Thankfully, his coworker had been learning Jesus for a long time and was able to share the hope of Christ that had transformed his life and could now do the same in him if he wanted it. He did!

This is the reason for learning Jesus. If we want to be a winsome person for Jesus, we have to absorb and marinate in the person, words, and teachings of Jesus.

The ways we can learn Jesus are many. I know that in recent years there have been folks who call themselves red-letter Christians. This means they put more emphasis on the words of Jesus over other parts of scripture. I don’t deny that Jesus’ words are important, but all of scripture is important. It is God-breathed and for our well-being in this world. We must study all of scripture while also working toward a greater immersion in the life of Jesus.

First of all, we need to be reading our Bibles in a consistent and planned out manner. Many of us use the You Version Bible app on our smartphones. On this app are dozens of Bible translations as well as dozens of Bible reading schedules or formats.

The one I have used for years, even before the Bible app came out, is Robert Murray McCheyne’s Bible reading schedule. Its format is to read through the entire Bible in a year, reading the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice. You may have other reading schedules or calendars that work for you, and I encourage you to continue your Bible reading discipline.

What we want to do is add time in each week to soak in Jesus even more.

What we are doing is not finding out—what would Jesus do? This question has become so popular in past years, but to ask the question as one theologian has said, “What would Jesus want me or us to think, be and do, here and now?”

I love how our author said in the book,

“My concern is that many Christians seem to have developed merely a passing knowledge of the Gospels (what I call Jesus’ greatest hits—his birth, his death, his resurrection, a few miracles, and a couple of parables). If we are to figure out what Jesus would want us to think, be, and do here and now, we must know the Gospels forward and backward.”

In order to know the gospels forward and backward, we need to commit to spending at least one significant period of time studying the gospels each week.

One way to do this is to set aside time to read through an entire gospel each week. This will mean giving up some time in your schedule. If Jesus is important to you, you will make the time.

Reading the Gospel of Mark will take you about ninety minutes; the Gospel of John about two hours and Matthew and Luke about two and a half hours each.

By reading through a gospel in one sitting, you begin to see patterns and themes you haven’t seen before. The entire flow of a gospel does not seem so disjointed when you read through it all at one time.

You can also read through the gospels in sections or use some other pattern to read large portions of them.

A second way for us to learn Jesus is to read about Jesus. There are many great books written by scholars, preachers and teachers that have done their very best to look at Jesus without all our cultural or modern influences. Michael Frost lists several books and authors on page 79 of our study book, and at the end of our book, the author includes a whole appendix devoted to books he would recommend for us to better learn Jesus. I won’t take the time to mention them all, but I encourage you to not overlook this awesome resource at the back of the book.

One book he lists there is, The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey. I recommend this book only because it is the only one in his appendix that I’ve actually read. It has been twenty years since I read it, and I now know the first book I’ll read to immerse myself in a deeper look at Jesus this year.

A third way to spend our time learning Jesus is to view various filmed versions of the gospels. I always tell people that any filmed version of the gospels is only one artist’s rendition. Some filmmakers take an artistic license that may or may not always conform to the biblical record. That’s okay if it spurs your deeper thinking and reflection on Jesus.

The author also includes many films in his appendix at the back of the book to help us begin to acquire a visual library of Jesus films. No single one has it all, but together they will be helpful for you and me to marinate in Jesus.

I remember several years ago when Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” came out in movie theaters. Many people went to it and were willing to talk about Jesus. The depictions of Jesus on film influence us and are appropriate to be included in our desire to immerse ourselves in Jesus more and more.

During this season of Lent, we are asking for you to add this holy habit of learning Jesus.

It says this in Galatians 3:26-28, ²⁶ So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, ²⁷ for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave no free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (NIV)