Jesus' Methods

We hear a lot about letting science guide us today. Ministry is not a matter of science; it is about relating to others. The church is not an organization; it is a living organism made of living parts (people) who are unique. Ministry, teaching, preaching, & sharing the gospel are more a matter of art than science.

Jesus understood and used methods that effectively impacted people’s lives and transformed them.

Jesus went out and looked for people where they were.

In John 10:11 Jesus calls Himself the good shepherd and He says that the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. In the parable of the shepherd and the lost sheep, Jesus tells the story of a shepherd who lost one sheep out of his flock of one hundred. The shepherd left the ninety-nine sheep and went looking for the one lost sheep till he found him. Jesus is the one out looking for the lost. Jesus went where the people were. He taught in their synagogues, sat and ate in their homes, and talked with them in the market place. Jesus came for others and He went to the places where they were.

The imperative in the New Testament is go. Jesus commands us as His followers in Matthew 28:19 to go. He does not say to tell the lost to come but we are to go to the lost.

Luke 19:10 says, “For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.”

The mission of Jesus was to go out and spread the gospel to those who needed it, which was and is everybody. Jesus did this by teaching the Word of God and doing acts of service to others in the name of God.

Our mission as the body of Christ is to spread the gospel to people by the teaching of the Word and by doing acts of service to others in Jesus’ name. We do that by going out and connecting with people.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is going out to where people are and sharing the gospel through the Word of God and actives of service in the name of Jesus.

Jesus did not force Himself on others.

When Jesus sent out the twelve and later when He sent seventy-two followers, He told them that if any town that did not receive the message, they were to leave and go to another town. They were not to stay and try and force it on the people.

When James and John wanted to call down fire from heaven to consume a village of the Samaritans that rejected Jesus, Jesus said no and simply went on to other places to share the gospel.

If we try to force the gospel down people’s throats, we are implying two things: first, that more depends on our effort and the pressure we put on people than depends on the work of the Holy Spirit; second, that it is possible for us to decide that a person shall believe, so that his response to Jesus is really our response forced upon him. The heart of evangelism is the sharing of the gospel, not the producing of results.

We are to be like Philip who was led by the Holy Spirit to go to a desert and wait for one man and then simply join himself with that man and ask a question. God did the rest and the man came to give his life to Jesus.

The best definition of evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread. 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is sharing the gospel in word and deed and leaving the result to Jesus.

Jesus spent much time training others.

The two parts of what Jesus did of His earthly ministry were sharing of the gospel to large groups and training with the gospel of small groups.

Disciple is the designation used for followers of Jesus more than any other designation. Disciple means learner.

Jesus trained His disciples by teaching them the Word of God. He spent time with the Twelve and by the Word of God trained them and prepared them. 

Jesus trained His disciples by answering their questions. Some of their questions were insightful and deep, and some were out of ignorance and shallow. Jesus did not worry about the quality of the question, but He used them all to equip His disciples with the truth.

Jesus trained His disciples by sending them out to do ministry, to do the work of the Kingdom of God. They were sent out to proclaim the Word of God, to heal, and to exorcise demons from people. The disciples had to depend of Jesus to be successful in doing any of these.

We learn how to relate to and serve Jesus by spending time in study and in going and doing ministry. It not an either-or situation but we are to do both.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is making our lives available to Jesus to be used to disciple others.

The manner in which Jesus did ministry was always focused on enabling people to see and hear the truth, to receive the truth, and to live out the truth. He never forced it but went where the people were and started where the people were. He did it with love and respect for the person.  

With Love for Jesus and Others Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                          Joe

Jesus' Approach Part 2

We are living in a time when we want to win the argument more than we want to dialog with others.  We want to talk more than we want to listen.

Jesus was the opposite of that. Even though He was all-knowing, He dialoged with people and listened to them and connected with them.

Jesus listened to what others had to say.

Jesus was a good listener. We see in scripture Jesus again and again listening to what people had to say before He began to teach them.

In John 3 Nicodemus comes to Jesus and Jesus lets him talk and ask questions before He shares with him about being born again.

In Luke 9 Jesus sends the Twelve and tells them that as they are out ministering, they are to depend on Him and only Him. When the Twelve return they excitingly share with Jesus all that went on and Jesus listens and then takes them with Him as He feeds the five thousand.

We will not be of much use in fulfilling Jesus’ mission unless we learn to be good listeners.

#1: Part of our mission is helping people and one way to help people is to listen to them. God gave us two ears and one mouth. I think that is an indication that we are to listen more than we are to talk.

#2: Unless we let people have their say, they will not listen to us. If they don’t listen, they can never hear the truth and give themselves to Jesus.

#3: We can’t learn where people are or what they believe and think unless we listen.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is God’s people, the church, listening before they speak.

Jesus sought the root of people’s problems.

Jesus never glossed over the surface of people’s lives. He also did not assume that what appeared to be their need was, in fact, their real need.

In Mark 2 Jesus is teaching in a house when four men bring a friend who is a paralytic to be healed by Jesus. In verse 5 it says, “And when Jesus saw their faith, He said, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’”

Jesus later heals the man and the man walks away. Jesus saw the deeper need of the man was for forgiveness of sin and so He addressed that need first. Jesus knows our needs and He always addresses the deeper needs first.

As God’s people we have to listen to people and allow God to enable us to see the real needs and empower us to deal with those, as well as their perceived needs.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing God to empower us to meet people’s perceived needs so that we can deal with their real needs.

Jesus took people’s questions seriously.

As Jesus listened to people and saw their deeper real needs, He listened to their questions and took what they were asking seriously.

In John 4 Jesus has an encounter with a woman at a well in a Samaritan village. He took all of the woman’s questions seriously and used them to share with her, and later the whole village, the gospel.

In Luke 10 a lawyer asks Jesus about eternal life and Jesus listens and answers the man. When the lawyer then asks a question that was simply meant to try to get out of fulfilling what Jesus said, Jesus still takes the question seriously and shares the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Jesus took people’s questions seriously and answered them and used the questions as an opportunity to share the truth of the gospel with them.

We as God’s people cannot dismiss people’s question even if those questions are not asked in sincerity. We can use the opportunity to share the truth and let the Holy Spirit empower what we say to transform lives.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is being open and honest and taking all questions that people ask seriously.

We as the church have a chance to be holy and different than our culture. We can be holy listeners. We can in love listen and dialog with people and honestly share with truth of God’s gospel of grace.

For the Love of Jesus and People,

 Raising the Roof  and Removing the Walls,

                                                    Joe

Jesus' Approach to His Mission

When we call ourselves Christians it means that we are committed to share in the mission of Jesus. For us to be involved in Jesus’ mission we need to understand Jesus’ approach to fulfilling His mission and use His approach, not ours.

Jesus Offered People His Friendship

John 15:12-15

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

Jesus would rather call them friends than servants. He had taken His disciples into His confidence. The disciples had shared experiences with Jesus. The disciples had intimate fellowship with Jesus. The disciples had served others with Jesus. Jesus shared life with the disciples so He viewed them as His friends.

Jesus offered His friendship to those who were outcasts to the Jewish culture:

prostitutes and tax collectors.

Jesus offered His friendship to those who rejected Him: the rich young ruler and the religious leaders.

Jesus offered His friendship to those who betrayed Him: Judas.

Luke 15:2

And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

Jesus was a friend of sinners.

As God’s people, the church needs to be a friend of sinners.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls means we as followers of Jesus are to be friends to sinners.

Jesus started where people were.

When Jesus approached people, He started where they were and found a link between their interest and His truth.

When Jesus called His first four disciples, who were all fishermen, in Mark 1, He calls them to be fishers of men.   

When Jesus begins a conversation with an immoral woman at a well in John 4, He begins by asking for a drink of water.

Jesus connected with people by using the natural things with which they were interested to teach them a spiritual truth. All of Jesus’ parables are stories that used the normal every day things of life to teach a deep spiritual truth.

The early church used that approach also.

In Acts 8 Philip along with other believers were scattered because of persecution. Philip went to Samaria and God used him to spark a revival. Then God led him to go down to a road that was between Jerusalem and Gaza. While he was there, he met an Ethiopian eunuch who was a court official in the Queen of Ethiopian’s court. He had been to Jerusalem to worship God. He was reading from the book of Isaiah. Philip asked the Ethiopian if he understand what he was reading. The Ethiopian said that he couldn’t unless someone explained it to him. So, Philip according to verse 35, began with the scripture that the Ethiopian was reading and told him about the good news of Jesus.

Philip, just like Jesus, began where people were to share truth with them. We many times try to begin sharing the Gospel in a way that does not connect with people because we don’t begin where they are, we begin where we are.

We live in a culture that is post Christian and not very knowledgeable about God and His word. So, to try and begin based on our relationship with God or our knowledge of His word is futile. We have to find ways of connecting with where they are so that they can understand and connect their lives with Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls means lovingly starting to share the Gospel with people based on where they are so they can come to know and love Jesus.

Jesus was patient with people.

Jesus was patient with the disciples when they didn’t get it.

Jesus was patient with Peter when he denied Him.

Jesus was patient with James and John when they wanted to destroy people for not accepting Him as Lord and Savior.

Jesus was patient with Nicodemus when he, a learned Jewish scholar, did not understand what Jesus was teaching.

Jesus didn’t force things on people. He shared truth with them and let God apply it to their lives. He did not force them to change or reject them when they didn’t immediately understand and begin to follow Him.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls means we are patient with people as we love them and share the gospel with them.

Jesus’ approach was focused on befriending people and patiently sharing truth with them based on where they are and not rejecting them when they don’t immediately believe and follow Him.

With Jesus and Using His approach Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                              Joe

How Jesus Did It Part 3

The last two things that are true about Jesus’ attitude reveal to us two essentials for our attitudes as followers of Jesus if we want to really be used by Him to touch other’s lives.

Jesus saw all people as a whole person.

There are too many times when we as the church, the people of God, see people as a soul with ears. We communicate to them that they are only important to us if they are willing to listen to us and agree with us.

In the Bible people are described as body, soul, and spirit. That is not thought of as three different parts of a person but more as three different ways to view a person as a whole. It is more biblical to see people as being both body and soul, not having a body and soul. Jesus never forgot that people are both.

Mark 6:34 says that as Jesus looked at the crowd, He had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And He began to teach them many things.

The disciples saw it was growing late so they went to Jesus and asked Him to send the people away so they could go get food. Jesus then tells the disciples to give the people something to eat. The disciples were overwhelmed because they had no way to get enough food to feed this amount of people. Jesus then took a small amount of food and fed the people.

Jesus saw and met the spiritual needs of the people.

Jesus saw and met the physical needs of the people.

In Luke 8 Jesus raises Jairus’ daughter from being dead. In verse 55 the first thing that Jesus told the parents to do was to get her something to eat. Again, we see Jesus meeting the spiritual needs and the physical needs of a person.

In Matthew 9 a paralytic is brought to Jesus and Jesus heals him. But in verse 2 Jesus says to the paralytic, “Take heart, My son; your sins are forgiven.” The most obvious need was for the paralytic to be healed so he could walk. Jesus dealt first with the less obvious but more essential need and forgave the man of his sin. Again, Jesus met the spiritual needs and physical needs of a person. 

Many times, we focus on one or the other. Jesus constantly showed that He focused on the whole person.

Jesus urged men to repent, forgave them their sins, taught them to think of God as their Father, instructed them in prayer, commanded them to preach the gospel. He also fed people, healed people of a variety of diseases, and raised people from the dead.

When Jesus used the words saved and salvation He meant:

In Luke 7:50, the forgiveness of sins

In Luke 18:42, the recovery of physical sight

In Luke 19:9, the transformation of character

Jesus is the Savior for the whole person.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is seeing people as a whole, not as unrelated parts.

Jesus spent Himself for others.

Jesus’ earthly life was about serving others. To prepare for His mission Jesus spent forty days and forty nights fasting in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-10). During that time, He rejected the easy way to bring the whole world to His feet. He had set Himself already on the hard way He had chosen, and from the beginning of His ministry He set out to spend Himself for others. 

In Mark 1:21-45 Jesus:

Heals a man with an unclean spirit

Heals many people of various diseases

Preaches in several towns in Galilee

Cleanses a leper

Was giving Himself away to help others

What we see throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry is Him sacrificing His time, His energy, and His power to help and save others.

In Mark 10:45 Jesus says that He came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Jesus gave His life for you and me.

1 Peter 2:21 says, “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps.”

Jesus’ choosing to suffer for us and give His life for us is not only done to meet our needs but also to set an example for us to follow. We as the Body of Christ are to spend our lives for others.

What does it mean to follow Jesus?

It means to spend our lives for others.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is spending your life meeting the needs of others.  

In the Image of Christ Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                               Joe