In
Mark 1:14-15 Mark records the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. It says, “Now after
John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God, and
saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and
believe in the gospel.’”
When
Jesus began His ministry, His message was simple; the time is now; the kingdom
of God is present, so people need to do two things: repent and believe.
There
are two parts of accepting Jesus’ message and following Him.
The
first is to repent.
We
have made repentance hard, full of drama, and rare. Repentance should be natural,
humble, and frequent. Repentance is to do an about face. It means I am headed
in one direction and see that is the wrong way, so I do a 180 degree turn and
head in the opposite direction.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is turning away from sin and not letting sin control
your life.
The
second part is to believe.
This
is the part that many don’t do. They see the wrongness of the direction of
their lives and turn away from sin but then have no idea who or what to turn
to.
Believing
is turning to Jesus. It is not enough to just turn from the wrong, the sin; we must
turn to the right, to Jesus.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is turning our lives over to Jesus and letting
Him be in control of our lives.
Accepting
the message of Jesus and following Jesus with all our lives involves both
repenting, turning away from sin, and believing, turning to Jesus.
In
the third chapter in the book of Zechariah we are given a powerful picture of
how this works.
Zechariah
3:3-4
Now
Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the
angel said to those who were before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.”
And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you and I
will clothe you with pure vestments.” And I said, “Let them put a clean turban
on his head.” So, they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with
garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by.
The
filthy clothing that Joshua was wearing was his iniquity. Repentance is pictured
as the filthy clothes are taken off him. Belief is shown as pure clean clothes are
put on Joshua.
If
we only turn from sin and don’t turn to Jesus, then we create a spiritual
vacuum in our lives. Nature does not like a vacuum and will fill it up with
something.
If
we turn from sin but don’t turn to Jesus, we will have a vacuum and Satan will
fill it with something that could be even worse than what was in our lives
before.
Following
Jesus is more than just not doing “bad things”, it is also doing the good works
that God has prepared for us to do.
Following
Jesus is letting our light shine so that others can see our good works and give
God the glory for it.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is repenting and believing; about turning from
sin and turning to follow Jesus.
Repenting and Believing
So We Can
Raise the Roof and
Remove the Walls,
Joe
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