Jesus Shows Us How

 

Jesus modeled for us how to live. Jesus is God, but He was also human. He is the only person who ever lived, and will ever live, who was without sin. So, everything He said and everything He did is a model for us on how to live in this world under the authority of God the Father. Everything Jesus did was empowered by the Holy Spirit, so He also shows us how to live with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

 

Jesus taught us how to:

Pray

Obey

Trust

Serve

 

Now serving God means serving other humans. In Mark 12:30-31 when Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is, He mentions two. In mentioning two, He links them together. Jesus is saying that we cannot love God with all that we are without also loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.

 

Loving and serving other humans brings with it an added level of difficulty because all humans are flawed and all of us are difficult to love at times.

 

In Luke 6:31 Jesus says, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

 

This sums up what Jesus is teaching us about serving others. We are to treat others in the way we want others to treat us. And we want others to help us when we need help. So, we are to be willing to do the same.

 

In Matthew 5:42 Jesus says, “Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.”

 

Jesus is laying down a basic principle here: When someone has a need and you are aware of that need and are asked to help meet that need and have the resources to do it, do not ignore it. Now, in doing this we have to use godly wisdom and make sure we are truly helping the people and not just enabling them to live in an ungodly manner.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about truly helping people, not enabling them.

 

In Matthew 25 Jesus gives us some very practical ways that we as His disciples are to help people. Jesus also indicates that helping others is key in demonstrating what our relationship with Him is like. The reason it is key is because Jesus is saying that as we help others, we are serving Him.

 

In Matthew 25:35 Jesus says, “For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed Me.”

 

We are to feed the hungry. Jesus fed the five thousand and the four thousand. So, we are to feed those who are hungry. Jesus says In John 6:35 and 48 that He is the Bread of Life. We help people by giving them the physical food they need, so that by meeting their physical need for food in the name of Jesus, they come to know Jesus as the Bread of Life.

 

We are to give drink to the thirsty. In Mark 9:41 Jesus tells us that if we give a person even a cup of water, we will not lose our reward. Jesus tells us that He is the Living Water and whoever drinks from Him will have living water flow from their life. We give physical water to quench people’s physical thirst so that they come to know Jesus as the Living Water so He can quench their spiritual thirst.

 

We are to welcome strangers in and accept them. In Matthew 15 when a Canaanite woman came seeking mercy from Jesus to heal her daughter, His disciples asked Jesus to send her away. Jesus didn’t and He healed her daughter. We are to welcome strangers in so they can come to know Jesus as Savior and Lord and become part of His family.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about meeting the physical needs of hunger and thirst and community so that people will come to place their faith in Jesus and receive salvation.

 

In Matthew 25:36 Jesus says, “I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me.”

 

We are to clothe those who need clothing. We are to help those who need clothing so that, as Paul says in Galatians 3:27, “For as many as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” We by providing physical clothing to people can help them to come to Jesus and put Him on in their lives.

 

We are to visit the sick. In Mark 1 a leper comes to Jesus and asks Jesus to make him clean, heal him, and Jesus reaches out and touches the leper and heals him. Jesus, as we know, healed in many different ways. He did not have to touch the leper to heal him. But Jesus entered into the leprosy with the man to not just heal him but connect with him at a very intimate level. We visit the sick and provide for them so that they can come to know the Healer, Jesus.

 

We go to those in prison. Paul was in prison many times. Paul wrote many of his letters while he was in prison because he experienced the presence of Jesus in his prison cell. Paul and Silas even led a whole family to faith in Jesus because they stayed in a prison cell in Philippi. We visit those in prison to take the person of Jesus to the prisoner.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about taking Jesus to those with physical, emotional, and spiritual needs by serving them in the name of Jesus.

 

Jesus puts it very directly in Matthew 5:16. He says, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

 

We serve others in the name of Jesus and with the love of Jesus so they can come to know the person, Jesus.

 

Serving God by Serving Others

by Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe