Jesus is the G.O.A.T

By Dr. James Blewett

Being the greatest of all time is quite a reputation to have. In this book, author James Blewett, attempts to prove that Jesus is the greatest storyteller, teacher, and leader of all time. However, Jesus entered into true G.O.A.T. status because he gives hope to the hopeless, life to the dead, and redemption to all mankind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: MainSpring Books
• Release date: Aug 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9781958434147

Dr. James Blewett

James has been a Pastor for 20 years. Just recently he planted a church called Extraordinary Church just outside of Tampa, FL. James has a Doctorate in Theology and did his dissertation on the teachings of Jesus, and that is what inspired this book. James is married with 2 kids.

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Copyright © 2022 by Dr. James Blewett.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

ISBN 978-1-958434-14-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022909513

2022.05.27

MainSpring Books

5901 W. Century Blvd

Suite 750

Los Angeles, CA, US, 90045

www.mainspringbooks.com

Introduction

We cannot too often or too plainly tell the seeking soul that his only hope for salvation lies in the Lord Jesus Christ. It lies in Him completely, only, and alone. To save both from the guilt and the power of sin, Jesus is sufficient. His name is called Jesus, because He shall save His people from their sin.

— Charles Spurgeon¹

As young kid growing up in Florida in the 90s I was a huge basketball fan. I could play basketball all day, and then I would talk about basketball when I wasn’t playing, and finally I would watch basketball at night. With the very basic cable package we got WGN, as did all of my friends. This means I got a front row seat to the most amazing, talented, and decorated basketball player of all time: His Airness, Michael Jo rdan.

Not everybody understands what G.O.A.T. means, to me you look no further than number 23 if you want to know what it looks like to be the Greatest Of All Time. I had a parent call me once time because her daughter called her a goat and she was too embarrassed to ask her what it meant, but wanted to make sure she shouldn’t be offended. I assured her, that her teenage daughter just paid her the highest compliment that a teenager can give, not by calling her a goat, but by calling her G.O.A.T.

I spent many nights watching Michael Jordan play when I was little and I just remember saying Wow over and over again. I understand that even though Jordan was definitely the G.O.A.T. of my generation that maybe Lebron or Kobe or Steph would be considered the G.O.A.T. of another. Before my time, some would argue Kareem Abdul Jabar or Oscar Robertson to be the G.O.A.T. for them.

In football we have discussions about whether Joe Montana or Tom Brady or someone else is the G.O.A.T. The golf experts have been trying to decide for a lot of years whether or not Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus is the G.O.A.T. These debates have been had at sports bars and company break rooms for a very long time and will probably continue on forever.

But even though we may disagree on who the G.O.A.T. is from generation to generation when it comes to sports, one truth remains, Jesus is the G.O.A.T. for all time and for all generations. Jesus is the most influential person in the history of the world.

I want to propose to you in this book that Jesus is the greatest of all time and there will never be a time where He is not the greatest. In Luke 9:43 And they were all amazed at the greatness of God.

The thing about Michael Jordan is that no one will ever convince me that anyone is any greater than him because I have a personal connection to his career. I watched every game of his 72-10 record setting season with my grandmother in her living room. It was our bonding time, it was our special thing that we had.

On March 24, 1996 the Chicago Bulls lost for only the eighth time that year. That morning I attended First Baptist Church of Tampa for the first time and on Tuesday of that week, I got a visit from the youth pastor of the church and I accepted Jesus into my heart. It was on that night that I realized that while Michael Jordan was fun to watch, he could not save me from my sins.

I decided from that point on that I would talk about Jesus with the same enthusiasm that I would talk about Air Jordan. Nobody can ever convince me that Jesus is not the greatest of all time because He has changed my life. My goal is that by the end of this book you will see the exact same thing and He will change your life too.

We will look at Jesus as the greatest example of all time, the greatest teacher of all time, the greatest storyteller of all time, the greatest hope of all time, and the greatest Savior of all time. In other words, He is the Greatest of All Time. Jesus is the G.O.A.T.

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1 Spurgeon, Around the Wicket Gate: Help for those who only know About Christ

Chapter One

Jesus is the greatest example of all time.

Interest in Jesus Himself is of preeminent importance. The mystery of His Person, the graciousness of His teaching, the beauty of His character, the wonder of His deeds, all these are of such value that it is impossible to attend to them too closely, or to write too much concerning them.

—Morgan, G. Campbell

When Michael Jordan played basketball everyone wanted to emulate him. When Tiger Woods was at the top of his golf game, everyone wanted to hit a driver like he did. It is natural to be like the greatest. With Jesus it is no different, our goal should not be I wanna be like Mike it should be I wanna be like J esus.

The ironic thing about athletes and other famous people is that people want to be like them and yet those very people would advise against it. Even though Jordan had an ad campaign that said I wanna be like Mike, he would still say that he was not to be anybody’s role model. You could try to be like M.J. on the basketball court and wear the clothes that he wants you to wear, but would very much prefer it if you didn’t follow his example.

This is where we leave the discussion of idolizing a sports star and move it to emulating a Savior. Jesus wants us to follow His example, He wants us to model our lives after Him, He wants us to surrender His leading. In fact, Paul sums up the entire Christian life so well when He says in 1 Corinthians to  Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

Therefore, if we are to follow the example of Christ, we must understand the mindset of Christ. Jesus differs greatly from most of the celebrities we adore because He clothes Himself in humility. And the fact we follow a humble leader means that we need to have a humble mindset.

Phil. 2:5-8 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

It is this mindset of humility that we will be looking at as we establish the fact that Jesus is the greatest example of all time . . . but . . . before we get too serious, let’s have a little fun. You see, I should start out by discussing the discipline it took for Him to be who He was. Or I should start with the difficulties He had to endure. Maybe even the dedication He had to have. But, that’s not a fun way to start a book.

The best way to start this book of is with a PARTY! Let’s look at Jesus the Dinner Guest. In John chapter 2 we find the first recorded miracle of Jesus, and it happened at a party - a wedding to be exact. Let that sink in for a minute. It’s okay to have a little fun as a follower of Jesus, after all, He is setting the example.

Christians often are accused of being people who don’t like to have fun. A lot of times we have earned this moniker. I’ve often been amazed at how crazy and ridiculous grown men get at a college football game and how those same people will stare me down in church for clapping too loud after a baptism. God does not hate fun and He does not want us to hate it either. Some of the most fun that you can have is when you are together in a social setting with people you love.

John records 7 signs (7 total miracles Jesus performed) in his book and this is the very first one, and it happens to be at a wedding. The very last one happens at a funeral. The very first one is mostly kept private. The very last one is a public spectacle. The very first one begins His ministry. The very last one all but ends it.

When we look at the story of John 2 at the wedding at Cana, the first thing that always sticks out to me is that someone was smart enough to invite Jesus to the party. Jesus accepted the invitation, although, He just recruited some of His disciples so He rolled up in that party with a plus 7, no wonder they ran out of wine.

My wife and I got married on a tight budget. We both had full-time jobs and then we worked a ton of side jobs to save up money for our wedding. We cleaned carpets on the weekends, babysat at night, and even joined a catering crew a couple times for a few extra dollars.

Heather found an inexpensive, but beautiful, wedding dress. We got married in our beautiful church in downtown Tampa, but since we are Southern Baptist there was no dancing allowed at the reception. (Remember that Christians don’t like to have fun thing.) So we did what most Southern Baptist couples do, we had the ceremony at the church and we drove somewhere else for the reception.

The funny thing is that our reception was actually a whole lot more like a church potluck than a wedding reception. We had all sorts of food in a buffet line, and most of it was brought by people we knew. We could only afford to rent the clubhouse we were at for two hours, so after our traditional first dance, and after we cut the cake, and after Uncle Leroy got his second helping of Aunt Betty’s lasagna, we had to kick people out. We couldn’t afford to pay the penalty for going over.

So when Jesus walks in with seven unexpected guests, I can totally understand why this would be a problem. If seven extra people came to my wedding there would not have been enough of cousin Gretta’s deviled eggs left for everyone. This is the problem that this wedding feast was running into with wine.

As a result