Jesus Shows Us the Kingdom Of God

 

There are many times a disconnect between what we as followers of Jesus proclaim to others, what we say we believe, and what we live out.

 

1 Corinthians 4:20

For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but of power.

 

The kingdom of God is not a matter of knowing the right theology or of saying the right things but of doing the things of God through the power of God.

 

In John 11 Jesus shows us what that looks like.

 

Jesus gets the message that Lazarus is sick and remains for two addition days, and then Lazarus has dies. When Jesus gets to Bethany and is met by Martha and Mary, they tell Jesus that if He had been there, Lazarus would not have died.

                                                    

Jesus shows us four things about the kingdom of God being about power, not talk.

 

First, Jesus shows us His heart.

 

In John 11:7-10 Jesus tells His disciples that they are going down to Bethany in Judea. The disciples remind Jesus that the last time they were in Judea, the religious leaders tried to kill Him. Jesus tells them that they are going and that they will be walking in the light.

 

Jesus’ heart is, no matter what the circumstances are, to do the will of God.

 

In John 11:33-35 Jesus is moved in His spirit and is greatly troubled and weeps.

 

Jesus’ heart is always with His human creation. Jesus is moved and is troubled and weeps because:

He is angry over sin and evil

He feels the grief of Martha and Mary

He hurts over the unbelief of the people

 

Raise the Roof an Remove the Walls is having our hearts in sync with Jesus by desiring to do God’s will and mourning over sin and what sin does.

 

Second, Jesus shows His courage.

 

In John 11:39 Jesus tells them to remove the stone from the front of Lazarus’ tomb and Martha says that Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days and that it will stink. In response, Jesus tells her to just believe.

 

Jesus was willing to endure the stink to be able to show the power of God. Jesus is willing to enter the mess and chaos and stinky-ness of life so that God’s power to give life is experienced by people.

 

Third, Jesus shows His power.

 

In John 11:43-44 Jesus tells Lazarus to come out, and Lazarus does.

 

Jesus shows His power over death by bringing Lazarus back to life.

Jesus shows His power over sin by bringing Lazarus back to life.

Jesus shows His power over Satan by bringing Lazarus back to life.

 

The cause of death is sin and the cause of sin is Satan. So, when Jesus brings Lazarus back to life, He overcomes sin and death and Satan.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is letting Jesus live in and through us and demonstrating His power through our lives.

 

Fourth, Jesus shows His desire for community.

 

In John 11:44 Jesus tells those there to go and remove Lazarus’ grave clothes.

 

Jesus brings life and He invites us to join Him in the salvation process by enabling us to baptize and teach others all that He has taught us and helping them to realize that Jesus has changed them and made them new.

 

We are Jesus’ disciples and we are to disciple others so that they can mature and be disciples who disciple others.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is joining Jesus in making disciples of others. 

 

The Body of Christ is to show the world the heart and the courage and the power and the community of Jesus. The kingdom of God is a matter not of words or theology but of Jesus living His life through us and showing His authority to the world.  

 

We as the church are the hands and feet and voice and heart of Jesus.

 

As the Body of Christ Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls

                                                Joe

 

 

Words and Works

 

1 John 2:17

And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

 

The world is passing away because the world is broken. The people of the world are broken. The values of the world are broken. The desires of the world are broken. The structures of the world are broken.

 

The answer to the brokenness of the world is found only in one source – Jesus.

 

John 10:37-38

If I am not doing the works of My Father, then do not believe Me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me and I am in the Father.

 

John 10:41-42

And many came to Him. And they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” And many believed in Him there.

 

There are two huge proofs that Jesus is the Son of God and Jesus continues to point to them.

 

One is His word. Jesus’ teachings are proof that He is the Son of God, God in the flesh.

 

Matthew 7:28-29

And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at His teaching, for He was teaching as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

 

Jesus didn’t teach as the religious teachers did; Jesus taught with the authority of God because He was teaching the truth.

 

Jesus didn’t teach as the religious teachers; Jesus taught with the authority of God because He was God in the flesh.

 

We as the Body of Christ, the hands and feet and voice and heart of Jesus, are to proclaim the word of God with boldness and authority.

We are to proclaim with boldness and authority but not with anger, condemnation, or judgment.

 

Ephesians 4:15 tells us to speak the truth in love.

 

If we just speak the truth, it can be very harsh. And if we just speak in love, it can be wimpy. When we speak the truth in love it is bold and compassionate.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is speaking the truth boldly and with compassion.

 

Second proof is the works that Jesus was doing.

 

Jesus did works that showed His power over:

Nature

Diseases

Death

 

The people of Jesus’ day believed Jesus to be the Son of God not only because of the words He spoke but also because of the works He did.

 

When we proclaim the word of God, we have to back it up with the works of God.

 

If we tell people that God loves them, we need to show them love.

If we tell people that God is gracious and merciful, we need to show them grace and mercy.

If we tell them that they can trust Jesus, we have to be trustworthy.

If we tell them that Jesus is there for them, we have to be there for them.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing the Holy Spirit to do the works of God through us.

 

The world is broken and the answer to fixing the world is Jesus. We are Body of Christ and we proclaim the word of God in truth and love. We back it up by living out the reality of Jesus, by being filled with the Holy Spirit, and doing the works of God.

 

Jesus’ words and Jesus’ works transform lives. We as the Body of Christ speak Jesus’ words and do Jesus’ works.

 

Speaking the Word and Doing the Works of God

and Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls

Joe

 

 

 

 

   

Unity in Jesus

 

Unity is very, very important to God. God speaks about unity a lot in scripture. It is an essential for the Body of Christ.

 

In Romans 15:5-6 Paul writes, “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

 

Paul prays that God’s church will live in harmony. Harmony is unity without uniformity. In music it means taking the four parts (bass, tenor, alto, and soprano) and blending them together to make something more beautiful than those parts alone. In the church, it is taking our many differences and allowing God to blend them into something stronger and more powerful than we are as individual.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing God to blend our difference into a oneness in Jesus as His church.

 

Jesus says in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

 

When God’s people are in unity it will been seen by us loving each other. This command is to love each other even if we don’t agree. Jesus loved His disciples even when they didn’t believe Him or understand Him. Jesus loved the people of Israel even when they rejected Him. When we love each other, especially when we are very different from each other, it is a powerful testimony that we belong to Jesus.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is loving each other even when we disagree with each other.

 

In Galatians 3:28 Paul, talking about unity in Jesus, says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

 

Among God’s people there are to be no made-man barriers of race or nationality, no barriers of finical or social standing, and no barriers of one gender being superior over the other gender.

In John 4 Jesus has an encounter with a Samaritan woman and in this encounter, Jesus breaks down man-made barriers.

 

The Barriers of:

Religion

Social Standing

Ethnicity

Moral Life

Gender Relationship

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living God’s way and not letting man-made barriers separate us as God’s people.

 

Jesus does not want anything to be a barrier that separates His human creation from Him.

Jesus does not want anything to be a barrier that creates disunity in His church.

 

My prayer for us as God’s people is summed up in two verses.

 

The first is Romans 8:1. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

 

Jesus does not condemn us as His people, so we are not to condemn each other. I pray that would be true of us, the Body of Christ.

 

The second is Ephesians 4:13. Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, for the building up of the body of Christ.

 

That we as the church will be united in our faith and knowledge and love so the church of Jesus is built up.

 

Loving each other leads to unity and unity leads to building up the church and leads to a powerful testimony to the world.

 

Just as God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - are in unity, then God’s people are to be in unity to reflect the truth of who God is.

 

In Unity Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                   Joe