04 – A Different Jesus

Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up
Part 4
“A Different Jesus”
2 Cor. 11:3-5 “But I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent. 4 You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed. 5 But I don’t consider myself inferior in any way to these “super apostles” who teach such things.”
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One day after Jesus asked those around Him, “Who do men say that I am? He turned to his own disciples and asked: “But you, who do you say that I am?”
Now, if you were to answer that question today, how would your answer stack up with the Bible?
That’s a really important question because it is not enough to say, “I believe in Jesus.”
Millions of people (61% of Americans recently polled) claim to believe in Jesus, yet many don’t have a clue about what the Bible says about him.
The important question today is which Jesus do you believe in?
This is why I’m bringing this series called “Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up.”
Because after two thousand years, people are still uncertain about who Jesus was and is.
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So far we’ve learned that:
Jesus was God (God the Son)
He was not created, at no time did he “come to be.”
All things were created through Him (Elohim)
He lived and died on the Cross sinless
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Now in our text today we find the Apostle Paul dealing with false apostles—men who claimed to be apostles of the Lord on the same or even a superior level to Paul.
But Paul calls them out as false, and points out that they are teaching a “different Jesus” from the Jesus Paul and the other Apostles had preached.
These false teachers were skewing and twisting who the real Jesus was.
And Paul furthermore chastises the Corinthian Christians for being so gullible that they believed anything they heard:
“You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach,”
The LB puts it: “You seem so gullible: you believe whatever anyone tells you even if he is preaching about another Jesus than the one we preach, or a different spirit than the Holy Spirit you received, or shows you a different way to be saved. You swallow it all.”
They weren’t checking out whether what they were hearing is what they’d been originally taught by the real Apostles.
Their discernment antenna weren’t up.
They didn’t bother to check the Scriptures.
They just sat there soaking in what these false apostles were teaching them.
So while the Corinthians were very zealous for the gifts of the Spirit and wanted to operate in them, they were terrible at discernment.
In fact, they were in danger of being ruined by these false teachers that were presenting to them a “different Jesus,” a “different Holy Spirit,” and a “different gospel.”
These false apostles were attributing things to the Holy Spirit that weren’t truly from the Holy Spirit, and they were presenting a gospel that wasn’t the gospel that saves!
And the Corinthians were swallowing it hook, line, and sinker.
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Now, I want to grab the phrase “a different Jesus” and unpack it.
A “different Jesus” can come in all shapes and sizes—everywhere from outright heretical teaching about him to simply a JESUS WE PREFER OVER THE JESUS THE BIBLE PRESENTS…
A Jesus that will agree with our chosen lifestyle,
Who won’t convict us of our sin,
That accommodates us rather than the other way around.
Or a Jesus that fits in with OUR own plans, and needs, and preferences, and doesn’t require us to fit into His.
Many believe in a bellhop Jesus that’s only there to serve us.
Or an investment banker Jesus who came to make us rich.
Or a life coach Jesus that came to make us successful.
Or a motivational guru, spurring you on to fulfill all YOUR dreams, YOUR aspirations, and YOUR desires.
Sometimes without even being aware, we MAKE UP a “different” Jesus from the Jesus of the Bible.
We reinvent Jesus to accommodate the way we want to live.
You could say we create a Jesus in our own image!
When God created man in the book of Genesis, God said: “Let us make man in our own image.”
But what the world (and much of the church) have said is, “Let us make Jesus in OUR own image.”
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For instance, You can safely assume you’ve created Jesus in your own image when it turns out that your Jesus is against all the same people you’re against—he’s siding with you regarding who you like and don’t like.
Or, you can know you’ve created your own Jesus when he’s just like you!
For instance, in African-American pictures of Jesus his skin is black.
In Chinese pictures he looks oriental.
And in our own western culture he is very, very white with Hollywood good looks.
Athletes portray him as being athletic.
One former Miami Dolphin lineman wrote a book called, “On God’s Squad.”
He said of Jesus, “I guarantee you, Christ would be the toughest guy who ever played the game…if he were alive today I would picture him as a six foot, six inch, 260 pound defensive tackle who would always make the big plays and would be hard to keep out of the backfield.”
Um, probably not!
I saw a transgender man on a network talk show this week who said, “God is a her and She Made Me Transgender.”
But tragically, that person has made up a God in HIS own image.
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So let’s look at a few of the more common “different Jesus’s” people believe in.
First, there is:
I. The inherited Jesus
The person believing in the inherited Jesus believes he’s a Christian by birth.
He says “My parents were Christians, my grandparents were Christian, my great granddaddy was a Christian preacher, I was born into a Christian family, we went to church my whole life—so I believe I’m a Christian by inheritance!
But an inherited Jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible.
No one is BORN a Christian.
You can be born Jewish, Muslim, or Hindu, but you cannot be born a Christian.
Christianity does not run in the gene pool—but sin does!
Jesus said, “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit” (3:6).
So no one is BORN a Christian, which is why Jesus came to save us from the SIN that does indeed run in our blood!
If you’ve been resting on the assumption that salvation comes through your bloodline by inheritance, please listen to the Bible:
John 1:12-13 “Those who believed in him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They became God’s children, but not in the way babies are usually born. It was not because of any human desire or plan. They were born from God himself.”
So if you believe you can be saved by your bloodline you’ve got the wrong blood!
Jesus said, “YOU must be born again” by believing on the shed blood of Jesus Christ!
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Then next we have:
II. The emergency Jesus
The emergency Jesus is the Jesus people call on only during a crisis, and once the crisis is over He goes back into the closet.
The emergency Jesus routinely receives prayers like this:
“Help me, Lord! If you will get me out of this crisis I will serve you, go to church, turn over a new leaf, clean my life up,” and so on.
The emergency Jesus is treated like heaven’s Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)!
When the house is foreclosed on,
or your child goes into rebellion,
or a pink slip shows up on your desk at work,
or the doctor delivers a bad test result, many dial heaven’s emergency number—1-800-Jesus—and cry out for their EMERGENCY JESUS to help them.
The only problem is He hasn’t heard much from you since the last emergency!
—The emergency Jesus is not the “Bible Jesus” who calls us to walk with him every hour of every day, in good times and bad, sunshine and rain.
Luke 9:23 “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”
So the emergency Jesus is a “different” Jesus that we make up—a Jesus that doesn’t require us to seek him, serve him, or to walk with Him daily!
He’s just a convenient Jesus we want in troubled times, not the Jesus who is!
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Then third there is:
III. The therapist Jesus
The therapist Jesus exists exclusively to make you feel better.
The therapist Jesus is a sympathetic, empathetic shoulder to cry on in the storm.
The lovers of “therapist Jesus” are primarily looking for a happy life, not a holy one.
They want a Jesus that makes life comfortable, easier, more trouble free.
—Therapist Jesus provides a shoulder to cry on, not a Savior to believe in.
The therapist Jesus is all about enhancing your self-esteem, and focusing on YOU as the center of the world.
So if you’re depressed, or you feel like life is meaningless, therapist Jesus is there to soothe and comfort and hold your hand.
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—Now, lest I be misunderstood, it is a wonderfully true and precious promise that Christ will never leave nor forsake his children.
One of his names is indeed “Wonderful Counselor.”
But those who follow Therapist Jesus rarely hear Him talk about their sin, because Therapist Jesus will never make you uncomfortable.
The lovers of Therapist Jesus overlook that the “real Jesus” came FIRST to remove the guilt and condemnation of sin…
That we come to Him for forgiveness and salvation!
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So will the Real Jesus please stand up!
Here’s what Scripture says about Him:
The real Jesus didn’t come to make you FEEL better, he came to MAKE you better!
He didn’t come to rehabilitate you, he came to transform you.
He didn’t come to be a part of your life, he came to BE your life!
Any Jesus who does not call you to radical, sacrificial, and sometimes painful discipleship cannot be the real Jesus.
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The real Jesus came to earth from heaven
Was born of a virgin
Lived a sinless life
Was both fully human and fully God
Died on the Cross for the sins of the world
Rose from the dead
Ascended back into heaven
And will one day return for his church!