Jim Van Gelderen: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. This is Jim Van Gelderen, and I am podcasting from Menominee Falls, Wisconsin. And this happens to be my home, so it’s kind of nice to be home for a few weeks, though I will be itching to get back on the road here in just a short amount of time.

Tomorrow, Lord willing, I’ll have the privilege of preaching at the Baptist College of Ministry graduation ceremony. And I believe the Lord’s led me to preach on something I’d like to share with you. That is really the essence of real Christianity.

You know, I was thinking about last words because years ago I remember memorizing some of the last words of different people, famous people, and one was a French atheist by the name of Talleyrand, and it’s reported that in his last words were the words, I am suffering the pangs of the damned. Another more well-known French atheist by the name of Voltaire is reported to have said, I am abandoned by God and man, I shall go to hell.

Now those are certainly stunning last words, and they, in a certain sense, give us a window into their soul and the despair facing eternity without Jesus Christ. Then compare that to D.L. Moody, who it is said when he was dying, said these words, earth receding, heaven opening.

This is glorious. Man, what a difference. The difference is Jesus Christ.

He was, of course, going to heaven, but what makes heaven heaven is the Lord Jesus, but we can have him now. I’ve always thought I ought to preach a message called Heaven on Earth, and talking about the ministry of the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of Christ, because that is what heaven’s going to be like. It’s his presence that will make heaven heaven.

But anyway, the essence of Christianity really is Jesus Christ, and that is what makes all the difference. It is what gives us hope. It is what delivers us from despair.

It’s what helps people die well, is the reality of the Lord Jesus, that he walks with us, his presence is real, he’s with us in the valley of the shadow of death. But here, young people, when it comes to life, what is real Christianity? Well, it’s Jesus.

And I began to think about that. How can we kind of put that in a little bit of just an essence? And the verses that are very well known hit me out of Philippians 2.

You probably memorized them if you’ve been around church, but if not, maybe you’ve heard them. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men.

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Now, those are words we could literally spend hours unpacking them. But in essence, what the Lord Jesus was teaching us, real Christianity is Jesus.

And understanding who the Lord Jesus is helps us understand real Christianity, because there’s that, that those verses, those words in verse 8, he humbled himself and became obedient. Those are really the essence of Christianity. Now, humility, of course, on the human realm involves being honest.

Of course, Jesus had no trouble with that. He was an honest, he told us the truth, but he never had to be honest about his own failures because he didn’t have any. Of course, our humility, we have to be honest about our needs, our failures.

But there’s another aspect of humility, and that is dependence. And I believe that’s what these earlier verses are saying, that the Lord Jesus, He was obviously fully deity, fully humanity. Somebody has put it this way, 100% God, 100% man.

We call that in theology, the hypostatic union. But somehow, when Jesus came to this planet, He took on Him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And He lived a life of dependence, a life looking to His Father to give Him wisdom, enablement, strength.

He was the perfect example of how to live the Christian life in a human being. And He did it without sin, but He lived in dependence upon God. Now, that’s not the point that I’m going to point out to you, but it certainly is there in the verses.

It’s part of His humility. He laid aside, in a certain sense, His deity. Now, don’t get me wrong, He still was fully deity, and won’t go into the theological discussion of that, because it’s very important that we’re completely accurate there.

But the point was, He lived as a human being, and He was fully God, but He lived as a human being, and He humbled Himself to the point where as a man, he lived in dependence upon his father. And we see that, like for instance, when he raised Lazarus from the dead, what did he do? He prayed.

And he was saying, this is what you do when you face difficult situations. And of course, in that case, he knew that it was God’s will for Lazarus to be healed. And that’s another discussion.

But so that is real. Real Christianity is a total dependence on Jesus. Of course, if you’re a D-Generation regular listener, you know that’s one of our big themes.

But notice another thing about this. It says he became obedient unto death. You know, humility is also sacrificial.

It’s living for someone else. It’s giving yourself to meet other people’s needs. And of course, the ultimate was Jesus, who became obedient unto death, and not just any death.

He died for our sin. He died for our eternal damnation. He paid for all of that in a way that I’m not sure I can totally comprehend.

But his humility and his obedience was extremely sacrificial. Now, how does that affect us? Well, there’s another verse of Scripture in the book of Luke, chapter number 4, where Jesus got up and read out of Isaiah 61, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel of the poor.

You know, that verse gives several ways why Jesus came, and one of them was He came to preach the gospel of the poor. Now, that’s not talking about people financially poor. It’s talking about people spiritually poor.

We are all spiritually impoverished. Without Jesus, we’ll go to hell. We need salvation and deliverance from sin.

But as a Christian, we still, without Him, we’re nothing. Now, with Him, we have everything we need. But without Him, we can’t do anything, the Bible tells us in John 15, 5.

So, we are spiritually impoverished. And Jesus came to say, hey, I’ve got good news for you. I can deliver you from hell, but I can also deliver you from the power of sin in your Christian life.

I can give you everything you need to be effective and powerful and fulfilled in your Christian life right now. And he came to preach that, and that’s one of the things he did. But he also came to heal the brokenhearted.

You know, friends, I find a lot of people today are hurting. And a true Christianity is not only concerned about preaching good news to the sinner, be saved from hell, the saint, you can be saved from the power of sin, but Jesus is also concerned with our pain. He’s concerned with our hurt.

He’s concerned with our tears as we pillow our head. He’s concerned with that. He came to heal the brokenhearted.

Real Christianity is concerned about people who are hurt. If we ever hurt somebody, real Christianity apologizes. Real Christianity hears them out.

Real Christianity is concerned that they heal. Doesn’t justify themselves. Real Christianity is burdened about people who are hurt.

And boy, I’m telling you, that can tell you whether or not you’re living the Christ life because that’s who Jesus is. He’s burdened about healing people who are brokenhearted. He came to preach deliverance to the captives.

He is concerned about people who are in bondage to sin. He wants to see them set free. You know, as Christians, friends, If we are living in the reality of who Jesus is, we’ll have a heart for hurting people.

We’ll have a heart for people in bondage, people who cannot get over sin. They’ve allowed sin. They made some terrible decisions, allowed sin now to dominate their life.

We’ll be concerned about them. Now, that verse goes on, says many things, recovering of sight to the blind. You know, people who love Jesus are concerned people get a hold of spiritual truth, that they lose their spiritual blindness that keeps them from understanding the wonderful truths of living a Christian life in victory and freedom and having joy in your heart.

They’re burdened. People see that. Yeah, real Christianity is burdened that people who are bruised are set at liberty.

That word bruised has the idea of crushed. It’s not a little slight bruise, it’s a big bruise. But Jesus, not only concerned for healing, He wants us to be set free from the bitterness and the anger and the blame and a lot of time the resentment that comes along when we have been hurt, and we blame the person who hurt us.

Real Christianity wants people to be free from those things, those attitudes. So much more can be said, friends, but Jesus is saying, or God is saying here in his word about Jesus, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Now, that’s passive in voice, which God is simply saying, allow this mindset to be in you, because this is how Jesus thought.

Now, where are we going to get that mindset? Well, where did we get it just a moment ago from the Word of God. Memorizing these verses, thinking about these verses, depending on the Lord Jesus who lives within us to live his life out through us, and understanding these things are his heart.

They ought to be our heart too. Are you burdened for somebody who’s hurting? Have you hurt somebody?

Are you willing to go back, hear them out, and to get it right? Are you willing to help people who are in bondage to sin? Are you willing those that perhaps are in bondage to bitterness and anger because of hurts of their past, and they’ve been bruised.

You know, our burden for people that need to understand the good news that Jesus doesn’t just save us from hell, He delivers us from the power of sin. See, that’s the heart of Christ. That’s the mind of Christ.

That’s real Christianity. And this kind of Christian life is sacrificial, and that’s what humility, part of what humility is. It’s sacrificial.

It’s not about us. It’s about living for others, and that’s the mindset Jesus had. And as we take a hold of the Word of God and put it into our hearts, that can become your mindset too.

So my challenge is you, what is real Christianity? What’s the difference? What’s Jesus Christ?

Obviously, the last words of those people I started with at the very beginning illustrate the big difference between a man who dies without Jesus and a man who dies with Him. But friends, God wants us to live a Christian life where the mindset is the same as Jesus. And we have that in the Word of God, and we have Jesus who lives within.

And those two things can help us live a Christian life with that sacrificial, humble mindset. And that is extremely powerful. And that really is what the Christian life is about, and what the D-Generation slogan is all about, total dependence.

That’s humility, total surrender to the life of Christ who lives within us to live through us.