What is the purpose of life? That is a great question to discuss. But in reality it doesn’t mean much because, even if you came up with an answer, how would it affect your life?
So let me ask you a more personal question. What is the purpose of your life?
There are many people who can't really answer that question today.
Many people survive.
Many people get by.
Many people get from one day to the next.
But many people don’t know why.
In 1969 Peggy Lee recorded a song called Is That All There Is. It posed a question: Are the things we experience in life all that life is? The question hidden in the song was: IS THERE SOMETHING MORE?
So is there more to life than what we experience?
Is it possible to live a life of purpose, meaning, and significance?
Jesus says it is!
Jesus returns to His home town of Nazareth and is asked to preach and He shares out of the book of Isaiah. This is recorded in Luke 4:16-21.
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Jesus says that He has been anointed by the Father. Jesus is the Messiah (anointed one).
Jesus as the Anointed One in this passage shares:
how He operates
how His kingdom operates
how everyone who is a follower of His will operate.
Jesus shares His mission.
So if you are a follower of Jesus you don’t have to worry why you are here.
Jesus’ followers are to reflect His priorities and pursue His purpose.
There are four basic things we are to reflect and pursue as followers of Jesus.
We are to accept Jesus’ Mission.
Jesus came to bring good news to the poor.
Matthew 5:3
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
We are to bring the bankrupt in spirit the good news that Jesus’ spiritual wealth is there if they surrender their bankrupt lives to Him.
We are to bring the poor in material needs the good news that we will share what God has blessed us with materially with them.
Jesus came to bring freedom to the prisoners.
Psalm 102:20
To hear the prisoner’s groans, to set free those condemned to death.
We are to reach out to people who are in physical prisons.
We are to reach out to people who are in spiritual prisons.
Jesus came to bring sight to the blind.
2 Corinthians 4:4-5
The god who rules this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers. They cannot see the light, which is the good news about our glorious Christ, who shows what God is like. We are not preaching ourselves. Our message is that Jesus Christ is Lord. He also sent us to be your servants.
People are blind to the truth and we have the truth in Jesus and His Word. We have the light of the Holy Spirit. We are to allow the truth of Jesus and His Word to shine out from us to the blind world through the Holy Spirit.
Jesus came to bring release to the oppressed.
Zechariah 10:2
Store-bought gods babble gibberish. Religion experts spout rubbish. They pontificate hot air. Their prescriptions are nothing but smoke. And so the people wander like lost sheep, poor lost sheep without a shepherd.
People are oppressed by
sin
poverty
hate
guilt
addictions
fear.
We have been given a command to let Jesus use us to release people from oppression.
Jesus came to bring grace.
Romans 3:23-24
Everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standard and all need to be made right with God by His grace, which is a free gift.
Jesus didn’t come to condemn. He came to pour our God’s undeserved love. We as followers of Jesus have not been commissioned to condemn but to dispense God’s undeserved, unearned love - GRACE.
We are to adopt Jesus’ Mission
Matthew 28:19-20
Therefore go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
We are to make disciples.
We do this by baptizing them.
We do this by teaching them to obey all Jesus commands.
We do it in the name and power of the Godhead.
We are to make disciples.
Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere - in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
We do this by being witnesses. Tell everybody what we personally know and have experienced about Jesus.
We are to make disciples.
John 13:34-35
A new command I give to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
We do this by loving.
We love:
God
Our Spouses
Our Family
Our Brothers and Sisters in Jesus
Our Neighbors
Our Enemies
Our World (the people, not the values)
Condemnation does not draw people to Jesus.
Condemnation does not change people.
Condemnation only hurts and wounds people.
Love draws people to Jesus and Jesus changes people.
Zechariah 4:6
Then he replied, “This is the word the Lord spoke to Zerubbabel: You won’t succeed by might or by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Armies.”
We don’t accomplish God’s purposes by human ways.
We don’t accomplish God’s purposes by human power or might.
God’s purpose is accomplished in God’s way which is by His Spirit.
The method is not condemnation, anger, argument, human might, or politics.
The method is dependence on Jesus, obeying Him, and loving Him and His human creation.
We apply Jesus’ measure.
Luke 7:18-19, 22
John’s disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them, he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”
So He replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.”
Fruit in the lives of Jesus’ followers is the measure.
The fruit is the Character of Jesus reproduced in our lives.
Galatians 5:22-23
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
The fruit is also new followers of Jesus reproduced through our lives.
Hebrews 2:9-10
But we see Him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about spreading hope, healing, joy, grace, truth, and salvation.
Is that what your life is doing?
In Isaiah 53:4-10 God gives us a description of Jesus as the Man of Sorrows, as our suffering servant. In verse 10 Jesus is called our guilt offering. Jesus gave everything for you.
Jesus was:
Beaten Twice
Spit On
Mocked
Flogged
Crucified
ALL FOR YOU!
Jesus the Anointed One was anointed by the Father to become the Man of Sorrows, the perfect guilt offering for you.
You can surrender you life to Him and become His follower.
You can reject Him and live life for yourself, based on your will.
What you cannot do is ignore Jesus. You will have to face Him and deal with Him.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about opening your life to Jesus and becoming completely transparent before Him. It is about letting Jesus fill you with His Spirit so the world can see Him.
Anointed by the Man of Sorrows to Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls
Joe
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