Jesus, The Greatest of All Time
- Jeff Jones
- Apr 30, 2024
- 15 min read
GOAT Week 1
January 13/15, 2023
GOAT Week 1
“Jesus, The GOAT”
January 13/15, 2023
Jeff Jones
Hello everybody and welcome to GOAT, a series built around the Greatest of All
Time who wants to lead us into an elevated life, to be like him. I did a little
historical research on the term GOAT, which means I googled it, to find the origin
of the expression. You know who coined it? Muhammed Ali, the boxer, who
proclaimed himself the greatest of all time, and his wife actually is the one who
took that phrase and noticed it spelled GOAT and started using that for marketing
his career. He arguably is the GOAT when it comes to boxing. Later, the rapper LL
Cool J picked up on it and put out an album with that title, proclaiming himself the
GOAT of rappers. I have no clue where he stacks up with rappers, but I know his
opinion.
Now the term is used widely, especially in sports and music, to describe the
greatest of all time. So, for football players, many would crown Tom Brady with
that title. In golf would it be Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods? Basketball—MJ?
Lebron? Tennis—Serena? Football coaches—a big argument here and I hate to stir
up controversy, but would it be Bear Bryant or Nick Saban?
Imagine not just naming the GOATs but being able to meet them. Many years ago,
a friend of my mom’s sort of met Muhammed Ali in an elevator. She didn’t know
who it was at first, as she got on an elevator at a New York hotel. He was already
in the elevator with a big dog, and she was intimidated by this big guy with a big
dog, and immediately got very nervous. He then said sternly, “Sit down!” So, she
did. She sat on the elevator floor. He started laughing and said, “Oh no, I was
talking to my dog. I’m so sorry.”
Embarrassing but still kind of cool to meet a GOAT. But let’s take it way beyond
that opportunity. Imagine if a GOAT in a sport you participated in reached out to
you, said that he or she saw some real potential in you and that if you were up for
it, they’d love to become your personal coach, to teach you all they know. Our
Executive Pastor, Jack Warren, grew up in Birmingham, and his neighbor was
good friends with Arnold Palmer, one of the greatest golfers of all time. When
Arnie would travel for a tournament in Birmingham every year, he would stay at
that house next door, and in the early evening, he would invite neighborhood kids
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to come and learn a golf swing. So, Jack learned how to swing a golf club from
Arnold Palmer.
How cool is that? Well, let’s take it up to a whole other level. Even if you are not a
Christian, you would probably agree that when it comes to human beings, Jesus is
at the top of the candidate list for greatest person of all time, which is why he 2000
years later is still the most influential human being on the planet. He is the life
GOAT. Those of us who do believe realize he has a big edge on all other humans,
because he is not only human but also divine. He is God who became human to
connect to us humans. So, God in a human bod has a huge edge on the competition
for who is the GOAT of all humans.
Here's the wonderful news. He came as the GOAT not to impress, not to proclaim
himself as the GOAT and cut a rap album. He came to reconcile us to himself and
to show us, to teach us, to transform us, so that we could live the life God created
us to live. He came with the most incredible invitation and opportunity imaginable,
to be coached and shaped by the GOAT when it comes to life. This series is built
around that invitation, the biblical wording, to follow him, and today is the intro
week of the series where we are going to become super clear on the opportunity
that Jesus came to bring us. It’s not just about going to heaven or even have an
enriched life here. It is way bigger than that.
That’s so important to understand, because Christianity can so easily get reduced to
something way smaller than what following Jesus is all about. I know for me,
when I became a Christian, the message I got was that Christianity was essentially
a list of beliefs that you affirmed, and if you did, then you’d go to heaven when
you die. Jesus came to make that possible. There is truth to that, but that’s not what
Jesus came to bring. He came as the GOAT to make it possible for us to become
like him. As Paul once said, we can hardly even imagine all that Jesus has in store
for us when we begin to follow him.
Today, I want us to examine that invitation and opportunity. You can blow it off or
jump in with both feet, and the decision you make is the most important decision
you can ever make. We talk about following Jesus a lot, so much so that the phrase
can lose some meaning, so let’s dive into understanding what that means, what the
opportunity in front of us actually is.
In the gospels are a series of invitations, that become as broad as broad gets, that
Jesus extends for people to follow him. We’ll focus on two of those invitations, the
first a couple of versions of the invite to the fishermen and then the same invitation
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extended to you and me. First, Matthew’s version, Matthew being one of the
disciples who received his own invitation to follow shares the invite for Peter and
Andrew, and in that invitation, we learn a lot:
SLIDE_________________) Matthew 4:18-22
“As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon
called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake,
for they were fishermen. ‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will send you
out to fish for people.’ At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on
from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother
John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets.
Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and
followed him.”
A dramatic turning point for these four, because they left a pretty good life.
Fishermen were respected, and from what we can tell this was a bigger family
operation that likely produced a decent living. But they understood the opportunity.
A rabbi was asking them to follow him, to be his disciples, his apprentices. Their
education system was very different from ours, and the pinnacle opportunity was to
be an apprentice to a rabbi, and he was promising them a bright future, an elevated
future, to be prepared to fish for people.
We’ll dive into some of that but think about how God came to his planet. Those of
us who believe, believe that Jesus was not just a good man but God the Son who
became human to connect with us, show us how to live, and eventually to die to
take the penalty for sin. So, if you were choosing the right identity and career for
God in a human bod, what would you choose? A King? A military leader? A
Pharisee, which were the big shot religious establishment leaders of his day? A
wealthy aristocrat? He chose to come as a rabbi, a teacher, which tells us a whole
lot. He came to instruct us, to show us how to live, to share his wisdom and show
by example his better way. The way a rabbi would teach, and Jesus did this even
more than typical, was by doing life together. You would live with him 24/7, being
taught by him and witnessing his sermons as he traveled, but also doing life with
him. It was very relational and very practical. What you as an apprentice wanted
more than anything was to be like the rabbi, not just know facts that he shares but
to live life like he lived.
It's more like how we teach skilled careers, like being a plumber or an electrician
or a surgeon. You don’t just hear lectures and take tests. Can you imagine going in
for surgery, and the doctor saying, ‘You know, I’ve read about this.” You become
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an apprentice, following around people who know what they are doing and learn
by doing it yourself. Another example is learning to scuba dive, something that
Christy and I enjoy doing. When I was taking my first certification class to scuba
dive, there was a book portion, but the most important part was learning by
supervised doing. The importance of that was highlighted when we had, as part of
the training, to demonstrate that we could tread water for ten minutes. We were all
in this twenty-feet deep pool treading water, with one exception. One of our
classmates was very impressively muscled, and when he came into the pool a few
minutes into our treading and took of his shirt, he was incredibly impressive. He
had a twenty-four pack, not one ounce of body fat. Even though I was treading
water, I found myself sucking my stomach in and pushing my chest out a bit. I
don’t think anybody was impressed. He then jumped in the deep end where we all
were and sank to the bottom. It was weird because he didn’t come back up. He was
just standing down on the bottom, and we all looked at each other like, “Okay, I
guess he’s going to start like that.” But he wasn’t coming up. After too long of a
time, somebody said, “Hey, do you think he is okay?” and a few people closest to
him dove down and pulled him up. He had to be resuscitated, which worked as he
came back to life, but what we all realized is that he didn’t know how to swim.
That’s kind of a prerequisite to scuba diving, so they pulled him out of the class
and encouraged him to learn to swim first. But think if the certification was only
about learning a few facts and agreeing with them. He would have gone to the
middle of the ocean and to real trouble.
That’s why the invitation was “Follow me,” not simply believe in me and then do
whatever you want. Belief matters; don’t get me wrong. In fact, Luke adds in his
account of this same story, a whole other aspect. Jesus doesn’t just walk up and
start talking to them. He performs a miracle that freaks the fishermen out. You can
read about it in Luke 5. Here is the end of the story:
SLIDE___________________) Luke 5:8-11
“When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, ‘Go away from
me, Lord; I am a sinful man!’ For he and all his companions were astonished
at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of
Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Don’t be afraid; from
now on you will fish for people.’ So they pulled their boats up on shore, left
everything and followed him.”
Their journey with Jesus does start with a realization that he is no ordinary rabbi.
They believe in Jesus as something more than a typical rabbi…at least the
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Messiah, and eventually God in human flesh. So, belief is significant, but it is just
the starting point.
His invitation is to follow him into a whole new life, a new path. That’s what you
do when you follow someone. You don’t go down your path anymore, but you
commit to follow the other’s path, the other’s way of life. That’s what Christianity
is, not just a few things to believe, but a commitment to follow Jesus into the life
that he wants for us, to learn and be transformed. This was understood so well by
the disciples and early Christians, that when the church starts after the resurrection
of Jesus, that’s what they call what we call Christianity: “The Way.” They called
themselves “followers of the way.” They like we today did not have the
opportunity to follow Jesus physically, since his in heaven and we are not. Our
opportunity is to follow the way of Jesus, to be followers of the way, to live like he
lived to become more like him.
This series is built around the way of Jesus, looking at how he as the GOAT
actually lived life as a model for us and how we can become like him. We will
isolate five of the key practices of Jesus that we can model to not only live like he
did but become like him in the doing of those practices. It’s how we grow, as God
the Holy Spirit, meets us in these disciplines that shape us and transform us. Over
time, we become different people.
Think of the GOATS we all admire, and one thing you will find when you look at
what sets them apart is that they aren’t just uber-talented. They are. But a lot of
people are uber-talented. What sets them apart is how much they practiced the
drills and skills. Take Tiger for example. He didn’t just arrive on this planet with
potential and quickly realize it. His practice routine from days off from
tournaments is legendary. He would wake up very early for his first gym workout,
eat breakfast, and then hit balls on the range for two hours followed by nine holes
of golf. After lunch was another long practice range session, another nine holes of
golf, and the second gym workout. He would hit around 1000 balls a day, and
you’d think after years of that he would stop and say, “I think I’ve got this.” But it
was in those practices that he became who he became on the golf course. That’s
why I, even though for a time I played a lot of golf, only became a mediocre player
because I hated to practice. I’d start, and then just say, “Oh, phooie, I’m just going
to go play.”
One of my more memorable conversations with my dad was as a middle schooler.
My dad never told me, but I found out from a relative that he was all-state in all
three sports in his high school, football, basketball, and baseball, and that he had
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major college scholarship offers in all of them. I asked him about his athleticism,
which didn’t apparently pass down to me, and I’ll always remember what he said:
“Jeff, I was not the most talented member of any of those teams. I just worked
really hard at it, harder than everybody else because I had to.” It’s one of those
conversations as a kid that shape you, and I made a mental note that I carried with
me into what I do in life.
This series will feature five practices, and for each week we will have one
challenge for the week to put that practice into practice. If you read Christian
books or listen to podcasts, you may hear these called spiritual disciplines,
meaning disciplines or practices we make a regular part of our life in which God
meets us and over time we grow. Becoming like Jesus doesn’t happen quickly, but
over time, with each discipline put in practice.
Jesus’ invitation is like a GOAT coming up to you in a sport you like and saying,
“I see potential, why don’t you hang with me for a while, and I’ll show you
everything I know as we practice together. Like Jesus coming up to the fishermen
and saying, “So, you are fishermen, which is cool. But if you follow me, I’ll send
you to fish for people.” He was offering an elevated life, and in case you think that
was just for them. Catch what he said in Mark 8:
SLIDE__________________) Mark 8:34-37
“Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, ‘If any of you wants to
be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and
follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up
your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And
what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is
anything worth more than your soul?’”
We will come back to this passage, but look at how broad the invitation is: “If
ANY of you wants to be my follower…” An open invitation to anybody who
wants to be into the kind of opportunity he was offering was unheard of. It was
more exclusive than Harvard or Oxford, but not with Jesus. Anyone. The offer still
stands for you. You can enter into a life of being his follower, allowing him to take
you where you could never otherwise go. Today you can affirm that or reaffirm or
refocus that, and it is up to you.
SLIDE______________________)
A Practical Way
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SLIDE_____________________) Special Sermon Slide
GOAT Resources and App
But before we lock anything in, a few additional clarifications of what it means to
say yes and follow him. Another, the way of life we say yes to is a
SUPERNATURAL WAY.
SLIDE____________________)
A Supernatural Way
Jesus offered to the original disciples and to us a relationship with him in which he
transforms us from the inside out. When we begin a relationship with him, God the
Holy Spirit indwells us and begins his work of transformation. We have a role to
play as we’ve said. We engage these disciplines, but he meets us in those and does
his work. That’s important to understand because you can do these practices
featured in this series on your own, without a relationship with Jesus, without
opening up your life to the Holy Spirit, and you will benefit. Your life will get
better, but not at all like it would if you opened up your life to Jesus. We can only
do so much on our own, and he is ready for us to say yes to his transforming
presence in our lives.
SLIDE_____________________)
Communal Way
Second, the way is also a COMMUNAL WAY as opposed to an individual one.
Spiritual transformation is a team sport, which is why when he asked the disciples
to become disciples, he was asking them to join a community of followers. In
addition to the twelve were scores of others, at times maybe thousands of others,
who were in it together. They were from all walks of life, women and men, rich
and poor, politically left and right, educated and not. Jesus formed a diverse
community of following him together. That is why he created church. People talk
about a personal relationship with Jesus, but that’s not what Jesus offers. He offers
a communal relationship, where we “one another” our way toward the growth that
he wants for us. At the end of this series, you will have the opportunity to join a
life group, and don’t miss that opportunity because we only grow in community.
But you don’t have to wait for that. You can link up with others in person or online
together and go through this series. Invite a friend or two to do it with you. An
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additional feature of this series will be on our app and include a series of
conversations you find on YouTube and are linked on our app called Wings with
Jeff where I eat wings and converse with friends of mine who I believe are
GOATS in the practice we are featuring that week. Watch the video that takes each
of these deeper and more practical and talk about it together. As you do the weekly
challenge, hold each other accountable to do it and then debrief it together. Don’t
go it alone.
Third, the way is a MISSIONAL WAY.
SLIDE____________________)
Missional Way
Remember the end goal, follow me and I will send you out to fish for people. Over
and over again Jesus sent his followers out to do ministry, to serve people, to reach
people. The goal of spiritual transformation is not just a better life for me, but for
others. Jesus isn’t just offering us an enhanced personal life, but a life of mission,
where we join with him to reach and serve others. A lot of times in spiritual growth
circles, people become more self-focused and churches internally focused, just
focused on those who are already there. The way of Jesus will never take you that
direction. If we truly follow him, he will take us toward the least and the lost, and
our lives will be increasingly about an external mission.
So, today starts a five-week journey built around the way of Jesus. The goal is that
you will do five challenges in forty-five days. We will have tools and tips in our
app to help you put into practice the practices of Jesus.
And the point of today is the basic invitation in front of each of us. Let’s listen to
Jesus say it once again:
SLIDE__________________) Mark 8:34-37
“Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, ‘If any of you wants to
be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and
follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up
your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And
what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is
anything worth more than your soul?’”
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It really is your choice. You can hang on to your own life, go your own way, and
I’ll still love you. So will he. Or you can do what those original disciples did,
realizing the incredible opportunity in front of you. You can give up your own
way, take up your cross (meaning your part of his redemptive mission as you lay
down your life for others), and follow him into an elevated, transformed, missional
life. You can become who you were created to become and accomplish what you
were put on this planet to accomplish.
Today, let’s go to God with that invitation in mind, as we consider that basic
choice, and then commit to the next weeks of diving deeper into the Jesus way.
Let’s pray together.
Jesus invites you to follow him into a whole new life, a new path. That’s what you do when you follow someone. You don’t go down your path anymore, but you commit to follow the other’s path, the other’s way of life. That’s what Christianity is, not just a few things to believe, but a commitment to follow Jesus into the life that he wants for us, to learn and be transformed.