I
watched the movie, The Jesus Revolution this weekend. The movie never came to
our community so I bought the DVD. It is a great movie. It was well done and
very honest about the spiritual awakening that took place in the late 60’s and
early 70’s. My relationship with Jesus was influenced and strengthened by the
Jesus movement.
As
I watched the movie Jesus spoke to me about four things and then He showed me
how these are related and then how they relate to us today.
2
Corinthians 5:17
Therefore,
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold,
the new has come.
In
Jesus we are new creations. We come to be in Jesus by confessing or agreeing
with Jesus about our sin and our sinful condition and repenting of that, by turning
away from the sin and turning to Jesus. We as new creations are different than
who we were before Jesus. We are to live as that new creation in Jesus by
living differently than the world and differently than those who are not in
Jesus. It is by how we live and relate to Jesus, other believers, and the world
that we show our new creation.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is about living as new creations in Jesus.
2
Corinthians 10:4-5
For
the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to
destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised
against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
We
do not use the weapons that our culture uses. Our culture uses guilt and shame
and anger and hatred and lies and deceit and bullying and just being louder
than others. We are not to use those weapons. We use the armor God has given
us. We use prayer, God’s word, love, grace, and mercy. When we use the weapons
of our culture we become like our culture and not like the new creations in
Jesus that we are.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is about using the divine weapons that God has
given us to destroy the strongholds that Satan has set up.
Matthew
28:18-20
And
Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been
given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to
observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the
end of the age.
We
have been commanded to go and make disciples. We are to go, not stay in our
buildings and glare at the world and condemn it. We are to make disciples. We
are not commanded to just to make converts. Many times, the church has been
content to baptize people and count them on their statistics and feel good. A
disciple is one who learns from Jesus through studying God’s word and trusting
Jesus with everything in our lives and following Jesus wherever He commands us
to go and do.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is about going into the world and making
disciples who, then in turn, make more disciples.
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.
We
are to love others just as Jesus loves us. Jesus does not love us because we
are so good and loveable. Jesus loves us out of His desire to love us and His
commitment to love us, not because of us or what we do, but in spite of who we
are and what we have done.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is about loving others as Jesus loves us.
If
we as disciples of Jesus define ourselves and live as new creations in Jesus
and use the weapons that God has given us by going and making disciples, by
showing the love of God in and through our lives, we will be used by Jesus to
change the world.
Revolutionary
Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,
Joe
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