Disciples of Jesus Are Peculiar

In Deuteronomy 14:2 and 26:18 God calls His people peculiar. That word in Hebrew has two aspects. One is special or treasured. God’s people are special or treasured to Him. The other aspect means to be different. God’s people are to live in such a way that there is a noticeable difference between them and any other people.

Disciples of Jesus are peculiar.

They are different than the people who don’t know Jesus.
They are different than the people who have a casual connection with Jesus.

Disciples of Jesus are not focused on or worried about the material things of this life.

In Luke 12:15 Jesus tells His disciples, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

The word covet means to desire or to take pleasure in or to delight in.

Jesus is telling His disciples not to desire the things of this world.
Jesus is telling His disciples not to take pleasure in the things of this world.
Jesus is telling His disciples not to delight in the things of this world.

The reason Jesus tells His disciples those things is because our lives are not about how much stuff we own. Jesus knows that if our lives focus on material things, two things are going to be true.

One, we will not be focused on serving Jesus and building His kingdom.

Two, we will have lives that are unsatisfying.

Our lives will never be satisfying when we are focused on material things because we will never have enough.

When John D. Rockefeller was asked how much is enough money he said, “One more dollar.”

Material wealth never really satisfies, because God created us with a desire for something more. He created us to desire Him.

In my office I have a poster that says, “He who dies with the most toys, still dies.”

God created us according to Ecclesiastes 3:11 God has placed eternity in the heart of every person. Material wealth will not cause you to live forever. Only a relationship with Jesus as Lord can make that a reality.

Then in Luke 12:22-23 Jesus says, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.”

Again Jesus is reminding His disciples that life is more than just the material.

Now, Jesus is not telling us that the material is evil. It is not. God created the material just as He created the spiritual. We as humans need the material to live.

Jesus tells us to trust Him to provide what we need in the material area. That will then free us to do what He commands us to do in Luke 12:31. Jesus says, “Instead, seek His kingdom.”

We as His disciples are to seek His Kingdom because of what Jesus says in Luke 12:34. He says, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

What you value, your treasure, is where your life focus, your heart, will be. What I value is what my life will revolve around.

If I value material wealth, then my life will center on that and I will spend my life pursuing material wealth.

If I value Jesus and His Kingdom, I will spend my life pursuing His Kingdom.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about pursuing the Kingdom of God because that is what will fully satisfy us and that is what will glorify God.

There is a second aspect to being peculiar.

In Luke 5:30 the Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus’ disciples why they ate with tax collectors and sinners.

The fact that Jesus and His disciples ate with sinners meant that they accepted them. They didn’t condone their way of life, but they loved them and wanted to see their lives changed. They thus spent time with them.

The Pharisees were really asking, “Why do you hang out with sinners?”

Jesus taught His disciples to be in the world, hanging out with sinners, but not of the world, accepting the values of a lost and broken culture.

The number one mark that Jesus says is going to be true of disciples of His is that they will love God. The second mark is that they will love other people with the same passion that they love themselves.

When Jesus answered the Pharisees in Luke 12:31-32 He says, “Those who are well have no need for a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Jesus didn’t come for people who didn’t think they needed God’s forgiveness because they didn’t think they had sinned. Jesus came to call people into a relationship with Himself, who knew they were sinners and acknowledged their sin and repented of it.

Today in the American church we many times have a bunker mentality. We build our church buildings and Christian schools and try and keep the world out.

Jesus invited the world in to hear and see Him. Jesus taught in the outer court of the temple in Jerusalem. It was called the Court of the Gentiles. It was the area of the temple where anyone could come - Jews, Gentiles, men, women, anyone. Jesus wanted to expose as many people as He could to the truth of God.

Disciples of Jesus need to be peculiar by inviting the world to see the difference Jesus has made in our lives.

We have the truth that can that change people’s lives - Jesus.
We have the love and grace that can change people’s lives - Jesus.
We have the righteous that comes from God that can change people’s lives - Jesus

We have to be open and transparent so the world can see Jesus displayed in our lives. We have to be in the world, but not of it.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about hanging out with sinners so that they can see Jesus.

The first thing that Matthew does after he begins to follow Jesus is to invite his friends, tax collectors, to come to his house and meet Jesus.

We as disciples of Jesus need to invite people to come meet Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being peculiar.

Peculiarly Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe