Jesus Does the Unexpected

 

One of the truths about God is that He is sovereign, meaning that He can do what He wants anyway He wants to and any time He wants to do it. We also see that in the earthly life of Jesus. He does not do what others expect Him to do.

 

In Mark 2 Jesus is teaching in a house and four men bring a friend who is paralyzed, believing that Jesus could heal him. When they could not get into the house because of the crowd, they climbed on the roof and removed part of it and lowered the paralytic down in front of Jesus. They fully expected Jesus to heal the man, but Jesus said, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” When the religious leaders questioned the authority of Jesus to forgive sins. Jesus, to show them that He had the authority to forgive sins, said to the man, “Rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” The man got up and immediately picked up his bed and went out before all of them.

 

Jesus didn’t do what the four friends or the man or even the crowd expected Him to do. He addressed the greatest need of the man - his need of forgiveness of sin.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about knowing that Jesus will always address our greatest needs.

 

In John 8 a woman who was caught in the act of adultery was brought to Him. The religious leaders and the crowd expected Jesus to condemn her. Jesus, after He had told the religious leaders to cast stones at her if they were without sin, and after they left, turned His attention to the woman. He asked the woman where were her accusers and then asked her was there no one to accuse her and she said, “No one, Lord.” Then Jesus says, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” Jesus did not condemn her as everyone expected Him to. He shows her grace and commands her to leave her life of sin.

 

Romans 8:1 says that there is no condemnation for those we are in Christ Jesus.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about expecting grace from Jesus, not condemnation.

 

In Matthew 9 after Jeus had called Matthew to follow Him, He then has a meal with Matthew and his friends, who are other tax collectors. The religious leaders then question Jesus’ disciples about why He would eat with these sinful tax collectors. Jesus tells them that it is not the well who need a doctor but the sick. Then Jesus says, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” The religious leaders expected Jesus to hang with them and cater to what they wanted. Jesus came to proclaim the truth and bring sinners into relationship with the Father.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about experiencing Jesus forgiving our sins and turning us from sinners to saints.

 

Psalm 135:6 says, “Whatever the Lord pleases, He does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.” Jesus does not do what we expect. He does what He wants because He is God.

 

Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                           Joe

Faith Or Feelings

 

I hear this said among God’s people a lot, “I just don’t feel that is what I want to do.” Many people live based on their feelings & try to relate to God based on feelings. That is not what God calls us to do. God calls us to relate to Him based on faith, not feelings.

 

In 1 John 3:19-20 John writes, “By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before Him, for whenever our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our heart and He knows everything.” John says that many times our feelings condemn us but God is greater than our feelings & we relate to Him & obey Him based on what we know God’s will is.

 

Jesus models how we live by faith & not feelings.

 

Luke 9:51 says, “When the days drew near for Him to be taken up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem.” Jesus was always focused on not only doing what the Father wanted but also when the Father wanted Him to do it.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about doing God’s will God’s way in God’s timing.

 

John 11:7-10 says, “Then after He said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again.’ The disciples said to Him, ‘Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, are you going there again?’ Jesus answered, ‘Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him’” Jesus knew that the religious leaders hated Him & wanted Him dead. But He knew that the Father’s will was for Him to go to Judea to raise Lazarus from the dead. He was going based on faith, not feelings.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about believing God & letting Him take you out of your comfort zone & trusting Him to lead you for your good & His glory.

 

We have several examples of people who followed their feelings & not faith.

 

Jonah running away from Nineveh & getting swallowed by a fish. When he did obey God, the people of Nineveh repented & God brought revival to Nineveh.

King Saul panicking when Samuel did not show up on his timetable & making the sacrifice himself which God expressly said that only a priest could do.

The people of Israel feeling like the people of the promised land being too strong to take the land after God had told them He was giving them the land.

Judas feeling that Jesus was not doing what the Messiah should be doing & betraying Jesus to the religious leaders.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about knowing that living based on feelings leads to harmful results.

 

We have a powerful picture of following Jesus based on faith in the life of Philip.

 

Philip led by the Holy Spirit goes to Samaria when forced to leave Jerusalem because of persecution. Then when God uses him to begin a spiritual awakening in Samaria, the Spirit leads him to a road in the middle of nowhere to wait for one man. The man was a powerful official in Ethiopia who surrendered his life to Jesus & changed the direction of a whole nation. God was able to use Philp because Philip obeyed God & was living on faith, not feelings.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about knowing that living based on faith leads to God doing awesome things in & through our lives.

 

The question is: Are you living based on faith or feelings?

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

Joe

How God Views and Deals with Our Sin

 

How does God view sin? We know from scripture that God hates sin and we also know that God desires us not to have sin in our lives and thus controlling our lives. God has gone to extreme lengths so that we don’t have sin marking and controlling our lives. In Genesis 3 we see how, when we as humans sin, God deals with it.

 

In verses 1-5, Satan in the form of a serpent deceives Eve to consider that God is withholding good things from her and Adam. In verse 6 Eve looks at this same fruit that she has been looking at for a long time but this time it looks different to her. Now what she sees is that it was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise. She got some of the fruit and gave some to Adam and they ate it. They deliberately disobeyed God and sinned.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about recognizing and admitting that we have disobeyed God and sinned.

 

In verse 7 after they ate the fruit that God had told them not to eat, their eyes became opened and they realized they were naked and they took fig leaves and tried to make something to cover themselves. And in verse 8 they heard God in the garden and they hid from Him. They were ashamed and afraid. They immediately lost their innocence, wonder, and intimacy with God.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about realizing that sin brings us the loss of our innocence and wonder and separates us from our intimacy with God.

 

In verse 9 God pursues them and calls out asking where they were. God was not looking for information. He was giving them an opportunity to confess and repent.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being willing to admit our sin and turn away from it and back to God.

 

In verses 10 to 13 Adam and Eve try to justify to God why they disobeyed Him. Adam says it was Eve who gave him the fruit and Eve says it was the serpent who deceived her into eating the fruit. This is what most of us do when we are confronted with our sin. We try and justify it. The truth is, if we confess our sins and repent of them, God through Jesus’ death justifies us.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about trusting Jesus’ death to justify us and not trying to justify ourselves.

 

In verse 15 we are given the first prophecy of the coming of the Messiah. Satan will bruise His heel, but the Messiah will crush his head. Jesus is the Messiah and His heel was bruised on the cross but Jesus crushed Satan’s head as He rose from the dead and defeated Satan, death, and sin.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about knowing that Jesus is the Savior and Lord and surrendering our lives to Him.

 

In verse 21 Jesus makes clothes for Adam and Eve with animals skins. God made the first sacrifice for human sin. Jesus makes the ultimate sacrifice for sin with His death on the cross.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about accepting Jesus’ death on the cross as payment for our sin.

 

Jesus hates sin because it harms us as humans. He pursues us with His love and by His grace provides the remedy for our sin.

 

Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

Jesus in Hebrews

 

I have been asked over the years by various people what is the Bible about. The simple answer is the Bible is about Jesus. In the Old Testament the Law, all the holy days, the sacrifices, the tabernacle, the temple & all the things in the temple point to Jesus. The New Testament more fully reveals who Jesus is.

 

In the first four chapters of Hebrews the writer gives us a powerful view of Jesus.

 

Hebrews 1:2

But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world.

 

Jesus is heir of all things, meaning everything belongs to Jesus. He owns creation because He created everything including us as humans. He also died for our sins. So, we are doubly His through creation & crucifixion.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about knowing that we & all creation belong to Jesus.

 

Hebrews 1:3

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

                                                                                        

Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God meaning that, in Jesus, we see the glory of God.

Jesus is the exact imprint of God’s nature meaning He is God in the flesh.

Jesus made purification for our sin means He was the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about knowing Jesus as God in the fleshing & accepting His death on the cross as the only means of forgiveness of sin & salvation.

 

Hebrews 1:4

Having become as much superior to angels as the name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

 

Jesus is superior to angels meaning Jesus is to be the object of our worship & not angels. Jesus created the angels & He is therefore superior & more excellent than they are.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about worshiping Jesus & not anyone or anything else.

 

Hebrews 3:3

For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses – as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.

 

Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Mose meaning He is superior to Moses, the Law giver & thus superior to the law. The law was given to make us aware of sin & had no power to enable us to overcome sin. Jesus died for our sin & then rose from the dead, overcoming death & sin & Satan.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about surrendering our lives to Jesus as our Lord & not depending on obeying the law to make us right with God.

 

Hebrews 2:10

For it was fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

 

Make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering meaning Jesus is the Savior because He suffered on the cross for our sins.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about receiving Jesus as our Savior because He suffered for our sins.

 

Hebrews 2:14

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.

 

He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil meaning that through Jesus’ death & resurrection He has defeated the devil. We cannot in our own resources defeat Satan, but Jesus already has.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about living in faith that Jesus has defeated our enemy, Satan.

 

Hebrews 2:17

Therefore, He had to be made like His brothers in every respect, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

 

He might become a merciful & faithful high priest meaning Jesus is our high priest who sacrificed Himself for us & now makes intercession for us.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about depending on Jesus as our high priest who sacrificed Himself for us & intercedes for us.

 

Hebrews 4:15

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

 

Who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin meaning that Jesus faced every temptation that we face but did not sin. Jesus faced temptation but did not sin. He was sinless.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about believing that Jesus was sinless even though He was tempted to sin & that He can understand our temptations.

 

Jesus is the focus of the whole Bible & He is Creator, Savior, & Lord.

 

In Jesus Raising the Roof & Removing the Walls,

Joe