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Jesus, Lessons for Life 6


Beyond These Walls -
Taking ministry to the world

We can see that Jesus was mobile in the early parts of his ministry. After the miracle at the wedding, Jesus, traveling with mother, brothers, and his disciples, moved on. Travel was by foot, so even short distance required considerable time.  We know they went to Capernaum, and then on to Jerusalem just before the Passover holiday.
Jn 2:12 After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples.
Immediately thereafter He and his disciples were again on the move.
Jn 2:13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
There in Jerusalem is where we saw his emotions, including zeal and anger, as we discussed last time. This trend of moving frequently from place to place was His practice.  Each location provided opportunities for deep lessons, for his disciples and all those He encountered.
 
Ultimately, Christ would give the command to his disciples to take the Good News to the world. We often refer to this as the "great commission."
Mt 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
What we are seeing in this early period of Christ's ministry is Jesus living out the example of traveling and preaching. This was common practice for Rabbis of this time, so Jesus fit perfectly with the cultural expectation for Rabbis and teachers of the time, traveling continuously with his band of disciples.
Key lesson -- our work for the Lord is not limited to time within the walls of our churches.  We are to take the message "beyond these walls."  
In our church, Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, TX, we have a working fellowship group within the church that goes by this title--Beyond These Walls, with the specific function of creating momentum to serve and take the Gospel message into the community and world.
As you grow in Christ and within your church, be thinking "beyond these walls."
Blessings in your studies & ministry,

Larry

 

Jesus, Lessons for Life 5
5/24/2010 8:29:00 AM Link 0 comments | Add comment

lessons for life


Emotion in Ministry

As Jesus began his ministry, we see that He could and did become emotional with some of the things He encountered.
On an early trip to Jerusalem we can see emotions displayed, including zeal and anger, manifested in Jesus’ behavior. When he observed that his Father’s house was being used as a marketplace for selling animals and changing money, Jesus drove the merchants from the temple courts.
John 2:13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14 In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.
15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.
16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”
17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
Key Lesson — Ministry is not absent of human emotions
Our savior demonstrated emotions. Emotions and feelings are a part of our human condition. The lesson here is that emotions are real. They were even real for Christ.
Key Lesson — Christ’s emotions were related to acts against God, not against self.
What most of us must strive to understand is, “what should be the basis for strong emotion? When are they appropriate?” In this example of Jesus’ anger, it is anger at what people were doing to dishonor God. It was not because someone had hurt Christ, or said something bad to Jesus. Rather, his anger was aroused because of this flagrant disrespect of God the Father.
For a lot of us, we are most angry when someone hurts us or offends us. 
 
That was not the case here. As we will see in later scriptures, when Christ was under personal attack, to the point of facing death, his reaction was silence, and forgiveness.
As we ponder this amazing example of Christ’s humanity, full of emotion, let’s strive to look past the simple fact that he displayed emotion, and seek the core of what provoked the emotions.
Blessings in your studies,

Larry

Jesus, Lessons for Life 4
5/17/2010 10:14:28 AM Link 0 comments | Add comment

lessons for life, miracles


Miracles

With part of his team now assembled, the Gospels reveal that his ministry began to include miracles. The first of these was at a wedding, where at him mother’s request, he turned water into wine.
Jn 2:1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there,
:2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.
3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
4 “Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.”
5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so,
9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside
10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
11 This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.
Verse 11 gives us the reason for this miracle. Jesus was revealing his glory through the action, thereby strengthening their faith in him. They were seeing live and in person that this man, Jesus, who was fully flesh and blood just like them, was also fully divine.
Key Lesson — Jesus, though fully human, was and is fully divine.
This lesson is important for us to understand. We may never in this world understand fully how it could happen, that incarnation that brought our divine God into his fully human form here on earth, but it is a central concept that we see as absolutely true.

Blessings,

Larry

Jesus, Lessons for Life 3
5/10/2010 5:48:15 AM Link 0 comments | Add comment

lessons for life


Becoming Disciples

Jesus then began to pull his early believers together—the disciples, some of whom would be appointed as the apostles at a later time.
What does disciple mean? It refers most often to someone who is following and studying from a specific person. Synonyms include everything from “believer” to simply a “student.” 
John 1:35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples.
36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.
38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
They said, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?”
39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus.
41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ).
42 And he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter ).
43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”
44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida.
45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.
“Come and see,” said Philip.
47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.”
48 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
49 Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”
These men were Jews, and it seems they had special longing for the coming of the Messiah. In these initial brief encounters each had with Christ, they became convinced that Jesus was the Messiah they had been so hopefully anticipating.
Key Lesson — Follow Him; become a disciple, a learner…
What was their reaction upon Jesus revealing himself to them? They followed.
That of course is a huge lesson for us—when our hearts are touched with the reality and truth that Jesus is Lord, we need to follow.
Blessings,


Larry

 

Jesus, Lessons for Life 2


Dealing with Temptation from Satan

Following baptism, Jesus was confronted by temptation from Satan.   At this time we witness another action by Jesus that must be mentioned.
He was fasting.
Fasting seems quite rare among many Christians these days. Perhaps it should not be. If it was important to Jesus, perhaps it is a behavior that is also important for us.
What is fasting? It is the act of giving up food (and possibly other things) in order to dedicate time to God, time without distraction of worldly things. It is a simple act of sacrifice done in devotion to God.
Key Lesson — It is important to separate ourselves from worldly things from time to time in order to focus on God.
We cannot tell if Jesus, as God in the flesh, had the same vulnerability to temptation as we all do. We can see that Satan did, as he does with us all, confront Jesus when he was vulnerable—after the long period of fasting.
Here in the first days of his ministry, Jesus demonstrates resistance to sin. Throughout his life He continued to resist all temptations and remain sinless—our perfect role model for life. As he is confronted by sin and temptations, we can extract important lessons to learn how we can successfully face temptation and make good choices.
Matt 4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’’”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.
6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’’”
7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’’”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’’”
11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.   
[1]
Satan tempted Jesus in several ways:
1.      To use his power to satisfy his physical hunger—turning stones into bread
Jesus’ focus—we need the word of God much more than bread
2.      To use his power to demonstrate his deity, throwing himself down so that the angels would then attend him
Jesus’ focus—don’t put God to the test
3.      To worship Satan in order to gain all that the world has to offer
Jesus’ focus—to worship and serve God alone
Perhaps the greatest temptation of all was Satan’s provocation of Jesus to use his deity, his divine power, rather than to standup to the challenges and temptations as a human.
Key Lesson — Jesus countered each provocation by Satan with Holy Scripture. 
Here we find a very important lesson—as we are tempted, we can find the answers and guidance we need to avoid the temptation by turning to Scripture. Therein exist the truth and wisdom we need in the face of Satan’s lies.

Blessings,

Larry


[1] Mark 1:12-13 and Luke 4:1-13


 

 

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