Jesus and His Word

 

A few years I ago we had a new family join our faith family. I was visiting with the man in the family and he made the comment that the church was a real Jesus-focused church. I said yes, but all churches were supposed to be Jesus-focused.

 

Many times, over the years I have been told that I use a lot of scriptures when I teach. I simply say that is all I have.

 

I am puzzled over why so many people are surprised over these two concepts. They seem to be asking why the church is to be centered on Jesus and His Word.

 

In John 14:6 Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

 

Jesus is to be the focus of the church because He is the way and the truth that leads us to the life.

 

Peter says in 2 Peter 1:3 that His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence.

 

Jesus is to be the focus of the church because He has given us everything, we need to live life in a godly manner.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is making Jesus the focus of our lives because He is life and has given all we need to live a godly life through Him.

 

In Acts 4:12 Peter says, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

 

Jesus is the only way to receive salvation.

 

Salvation is:

Forgiveness of Sin

Assurance of Eternal Life

Relationship with the Father Through Jesus

Filling of the Holy Spirit for a Jesus-Directed Life

 

Jesus is the only way to all these aspects of salvation.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is receiving Jesus as the only source of salvation.

 

In Matthew 16:18, Peter declares that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

 

Jesus is God in the flesh.

 

Jesus is just not:

A Good Man

A Man Following God

A Prophet of God

A Preacher of the Truth of God

 

Jesus is God who became man and then gave Himself to be our atoning sacrifice for sin.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is believing and obeying and serving Jesus as God.

 

The church has to be focused on the Word of God because of what God’s Word does in and through us.

 

Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

 

God’s Word is living – it is continually used by God to speak to us.

God’s Word is active – it is continually used by God to transform us.

God’s Word penetrates to the very core of who we are – it reveals our sins and weaknesses and reveals who we are in Jesus.

 

The Word of God speaks to us, changes us to be like Jesus, and reveals to us who we are and who God is. It does this through the empowering of the Holy Spirit.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is making God’s Word part of our daily life and allowing the Holy Spirit it use it to change us.

 

Jesus responds to Satan in Matthew 4:4, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

 

The church has to be focused on the Word of God because it is what we need to live based on.

 

The Word of God is to be spiritually to us what food is physically to us. It is what sustains us and gives us hope and joy and peace.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is making God’s Word our spiritual food.

 

Jesus and His Word are to be the focus and foundation of the church. It is not just believing in Jesus and believing His Word; it is living out His Word and making Jesus the sole ruling authority in our lives.

 

With Jesus and His Word Directing,

Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

Troubled!

 

Do you ever feel troubled? It is not fearful or worried or hopeless. It is looking at the world and what is going on and the circumstances around you, and it brings a sorrow to your spirit.

 

Jesus had those times of experiencing trouble in His spirit. What made Jesus experience trouble in His spirit?

 

Luke 13:34

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

 

Jesus was troubled over disobedience to God’s word.

Jesus was troubled over rejection of the will and authority of God.

 

Disobedience to God’s word should trouble us because it is God’s word that gives true direction for living and a real foundation for our lives.

 

Rejection of God’s will should trouble us because God’s will is always perfect and always the best for us.

 

Rejection of God’s authority should trouble us because God’s authority is the only thing that can overcome sin and the effects of sin in our lives.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is accepting the word and will and authority of God as what directs our lives.

 

John 11:33-35

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in His spirit and greatly troubled. And He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept.

 

The hurt and sorrow in the lives of people causes Jesus to be troubled. Jesus understands what sorrow is and what it does to our hearts as humans. Jesus can know and understand human sorrow because He was a human.

 

Jesus emptied Himself and became human and, in becoming human, became a servant and, in becoming a servant, humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death on the cross for the sins of humanity.

 

So, Jesus became human so He could be our perfect sacrifice and so He could fully identify with us as humans.

 

Raise the Roof an Remove the Walls is to be troubled over the hurt and sorrow of others.  

 

John 12:27

Now is My soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? But for this purpose, I have come to this hour.

 

Jesus is troubled by the brokenness and evil in the world.

 

Jesus’ answer to the brokenness and evil in the world was to offer Himself as the sacrifice for sin.

 

Jesus saw those who were broken because of sin and evil because they had bought into the deceit and lies of Satan as victims, not enemies. We as the body of Christ are to view those broken and those who are evil as victims, not enemies.

 

In Ephesians 2, we are described before we became followers of Jesus as:

Dead in our trespasses

Walking in the course of this world

Following the prince of the power of the air (Satan)

Living based on our human fallen passions

Children of wrath

 

But God, through His grace, changed that through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is viewing broken people as victims and not as enemies because, before Jesus changed our lives, we were totally broken people also.

 

Matthew 26:37

And taking with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, He began to be sorrowful and troubled.

 

Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane and He became troubled. He was troubled and sorrowful over the cost He would have to pay to provide salvation.

 

We should be troubled over what our sin cost Jesus.

 

Jesus gave all for our sin and we are to never take that for granted. It should motivate us to live honoring Jesus with all that we say and do.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is honoring Jesus with our lives because He died for our sins.

 

That is what troubled Jesus.

 

What troubles me?

 

I am troubled when I am not comfortable all the time.

I am trouble when I don’t get what I want.

I am troubled when I am not appreciated.

I am troubled when others don’t do what I think they should do.

 

Do you see the difference between what troubled Jesus and what troubles me? Jesus was troubled about how sin was affecting others. I am many times troubled about things that inconvenience me.

 

Jesus did something about what troubled Him. He gave His life for sin.

 

We need to be troubled over what troubled Jesus and to give our lives to living out the solution – Jesus.

 

With Jesus as Our Authority Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                               Joe

Seek God's Kingdom

 

Have you had the experience with Jesus when He has kept some passages of scripture in your mind? Well, I have a had that experience several times, the last of which was this past week. Jesus has kept three verses on my mind for several days and has given me a chance to share it with a lot of people over those days.

 

The first verse that Jesus put in my mind was Matthew 6:33. That verse says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.”

 

We are to seek God and His kingdom and His righteousness. The idea of seeking first is not put at the it at the top of my top ten list. It is not first as the top of a list, but it is first such as first above all else. It is first with no rivals or competitors. I seek God’s kingdom above anything else.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is seeking God’s kingdom and His righteousness above anything else in my life.

 

The second verse explains what God’s kingdom, that I am seeking, is. It is 1 Corinthians 4:20. It says, “For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power.”

 

The kingdom of God is not just words but it is the power of God being displayed through our lives as followers of Jesus.

 

The word “power” is where we get the word dynamite. It is explosive power. It is the power that transforms lives, that heals people, that changes cultures, and that delivers people from the slavery of sin.

 

It means that when I seek God’s kingdom, I will experience the power of God exploding within me and God using me to impact others’ lives.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing through the Holy Spirit the power of God working in and though you.

 

The third passage is Micah 6:8. It says, “He told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”

 

Seeking God’s kingdom above everything and letting the power of the Holy Spirit guide will lead you to:

Doing Justice – making justice what God does through His power through your life

Loving Mercy – making mercy what God displays through your life

Walking Humbling – making humility what God characterizes your life with

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living lives characterized by justice, mercy, and humility.  

 

We as followers of Jesus are to seek God’s kingdom above anything else in our lives, and as we enter the kingdom, we allow the Holy Spirit to fill us and give us the power to display the characteristics of the kingdom, which are justice, mercy, and humility.

 

When the church proclaims the truth of God’s kingdom but doesn’t live it out, it causes the world to reject Jesus and see the church as a bunch of hypocrites.

 

When the church proclaims the truth of God’s kingdom and lives it out, it causes the world to notice and many to receive Jesus as their Savior and Lord.

 

The world needs the church to proclaim the truth of God’s kingdom and live it out.

 

Living the Truth of God’s Kingdom and

Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

How to Turn the World Upside Down

 

In Matthew 16 Jesus asked His disciples who people said that Jesus was and then He asked who they said He was. Peter answered that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus then tells Peter that he is blessed because His Father had revealed that to him.

 

Jesus in verse 18 says that he is Peter and on the truth of what Peter the rock said Jesus will build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

 

We see a group of mostly uneducated and theologically untrained followers. But they are described in Acts 17:6 as people who turned the world upside down.

 

How did those early believers turn the world upside down?

 

They loved Jesus.

 

Paul describes the Thessalonian believers in 1 Thessalonians 1:3 as laboring in love. The early believers loved Jesus and gave themselves to serve Him and Him only.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is loving Jesus and serving out of love for Jesus.

 

They depended on the filling of the Holy Spirit.

 

In Ephesians 5:18 Paul tells us as followers of Jesus to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit. The early church depended on the Holy Spirit to give them desire for God and the empowering to obey God.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing the Holy Spirit to fill us and depending on the work of the Spirit in and through our lives.

 

They believed God’s word.

 

In Acts 2:42 the early church was devoted to the apostles’ teaching. They believed God’s word and obeyed it and lived it out daily.    

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is believing God’s word, obeying God’s word, and living God’s word out every day.

They made a priority of worship and prayer.

 

Worship is telling God how much we love Him.

Prayer is listening to God and agreeing with His will.

 

The early believers spent time in both public and private worship.

The early believers prayed about everything and trusted God to answer their prayers.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is prioritizing worship and prayer.

 

They served the community.

 

In Acts 4:32-35 Luke says that the early church their sold material possessions and shared with all who had need. They did what Jesus tells us to in Matthew 25 by feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, they took strangers in, they clothed the naked, they visited the sick, and they ministered to the prisoners.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is seeing the perceived needs of a community or area and meeting those needs in the name of Jesus.

 

It is time that the church and particularly the American church overcame the gates of hell.

 

The early believers show us how:

Loving Jesus

Depending on the Holy Spirit

Believing and obeying God’s word

Prioritizing worship and prayer

Meeting the needs of people

 

Jesus loves us and He desires that all people know He loves them, experience that love, and has a love relationship with Him. We as followers of Jesus have been given a privileged call of sharing and showing His love to others.

 

So, are we going to be described as those early believers were as people who turned the world upside down?

 

Showing the World the Love of Jesus,

Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                       Joe

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