Sozo Bible for Youth NT – Part 1

Sozo Bible Study for Youth, NT, Part 1

Bringing Encouragement For Our Youth

By G. Evan Newmyer

Let’s begin…

The Gospel According To Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

We have one Gospel, written by four men, and each man wrote as the Holy Ghost gave them the words; therefore, instead of looking at each one as separate documents, we’re going to join them all together. Why? Matthew is written to the person who has just received the Cross, and Mark to those who are further along, Luke to those who like to study, but John fills in many gaps, and gives us a time table to follow, and each joined together gives us a complete historical, and spiritual account. Why is that so important? It tells us how the Spirit of Christ in us desires to work through us, and desires to make us a people of love, peace, joy, faith and hope. Once we know what is going on, we can join it with peace and hope. Like anything, once we know the rules and goal, then we can join, but if we think it’s “baseball”, but it’s really “kickball”, we not only mess up the rules, but we end fighting the purpose. There are religions many in the world, all of which talk about God, or a god, and each has moral values that the person in that religion are suppose to follow; however, none of them promise us a New nature, one that does Good without having to think about it. We do a bunch of things without having to think about them, we just do them. Our Nature guides us, and being a Christian gives us a Nature we’re going to talk about. Will it change you into some puppet? Nay, it will finish the good work begun in you. You will be a better person, a happier person, a more loved person, and a person who is at Peace.

The Birth of Jesus

We will begin with the Birth of Jesus, then go to Luke where we are told some things about Jesus when He was twelve years old, then we will move to John the Baptist, then forward to the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus. Luke’s account is somewhat different since he is speaking to those who like to study, and he takes many events and puts them into two groups, one group points to “deny yourself”, the other to “pick up your cross”, both study groups show us how to receive the Cross of Jesus as God intended.

So, let us begin. Luke isn’t concerned about getting the events “one after the other” as they happened. He is putting them into groups so we can study them as they relate to the group. For instance let’s say Jesus one day did Math, the next English, the next day Math again, and so on. Luke wants us to look at all the Math stuff together, and then all the English stuff together. John on the other hand tells us “on the next day”, or on a certain day, showing he is going day to day.

John the Baptist

John the Baptist was a remarkable man, he had two missions both were to prepare the way for the Lord. First was his mission to prepare the people to believe on the Lord, then he was to wash the Sacrifice of God, and present that Sacrifice to the Father, and when he did he would see the Dove (acceptance) of God prove Jesus as the “Lamb of God”. John’s mission to prepare the people was to preach and to baptize the people in water. John’s type of baptism was very important, but our water baptism is somewhat different. When we Believe something, it means we have a confidence now, but the basis for our belief is something that has happened. Faith is also a now confidence, but it’s based on some hope yet to come. We believe we got up this morning, we have faith that we can get to bed tonight. John’s baptism was that the people “should” believe on Jesus, since the Cross of Jesus was yet to happen. The baptism of John pointed to the Cross, but ours looks back at the Cross. When we are water baptized we are saying we believe in Jesus, we believe in the Cross of Jesus, we believe Jesus is raised from the dead, and we want all that Jesus has for us, and we want God to forgive our sins, and our part in that is our vow to forgive others, as we are forgiven. Wow, the most important part is our belief that as we forgive, we are forgiven by God.

John also preached to the people, and what he preached was another type of baptism, one only Jesus could do. You see the word Baptism means to be covered, but it also means we want to join to something. When we were baptized in water, we didn’t become water, so why water? Why not grape juice? Water is a symbol of Mercy, and Mercy is a willing heart to forgive. When we are covered, or sprinkled with water we are accepting the purpose of the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus; we are saying we believe in what Jesus did for us, but that is only part of it, not all of it. We then need the Power to finish, and when we ask Jesus to baptize us with the Holy Ghost, He will. Our faith then says Jesus is able to complete all this, and get us to heaven. No one can get to heaven without something from heaven, and Jesus made sure we could have the same Spirit that He had. John couldn’t do that, and in truth neither can we, we must ask Jesus to give us that Spirit.

The Fall Nature

So, why even go through all this? When Adam and Eve took of the fruit they began something in the earth called “the fall nature”, it’s that nature that makes us think of nothing but ourselves, or to make sure we get something for what we do. Is that bad? Well, if the only reason we help others is to get something for ourselves, yes. The Ten Commandments were given to man as a type of “conscience”, they are set rules to tell man what not to do. When we accept the Holy Ghost, He will give us the Holy Spirit as our New “conscience” that not only warns us of what not to do, but explains why; and better, He is our guide Who leads us into what we should, and can do. The Holy Spirit in us is what the New Testament calls “Grace”, which means a gift from God to do the things of God. This gift is one that no person can buy, steal or copy, but one that God gives freely when we ask. The fall nature wants us to fail, wants to beat us up, and really wants to destroy us. The fall nature will make like it’s our “friend”, yet lead us into trouble. Ever think, “okay, this is good, I can do this”, but then find out it was wrong, and you got into trouble? That was the fall nature. Ever think, “I know this is right, and I really think I should do it”, and you do, and people say “oh my, you are so good”? That was God’s nature leading you into good things. All of us needed to be taught to walk, talk, eat, and many other things. The fall nature, and the Christ nature are no different, the fall nature taught us many “tricks” to get our own way. We learned how to cry, stomp our feet, show off in front of people, or just be real cute to get what we wanted. The Christ nature is teaching us how to be open, honest, and truthful. The fall nature has a “love”, but it’s a love for the self, ever see anyone who only thought of their self? Whatever was going on, they had to be the center of attention, whatever was happening they had to get the most. They were always the “show pony”, and they always thought of their self. That is a “self-love”, but God’s love is much different, it will cause us to be a “blessing” (a reason to be very happy), but it always includes other people. The Love Jesus has for us is based in God’s Love, a love that cares about us. Jesus gave of Himself when He didn’t have to, and He did it for love.

If this fall nature is so bad, why can’t we just peel it off? We can’t is has become our “master”, and it has things that “rule” us. Ever get so angry the anger made you do things? The anger was ruling you. Ever get so scared that the fear caused you to do something you might not have done? The fear was ruling you. As long as those things rule us, we are a slave to them. However, Jesus gave us something greater, when Jesus went to the Cross He did it for the each of us who would receive His efforts. We can’t die, and then put our flesh back on like some coat but Jesus who had no sin, died for us who are sin, so we may look at Him and say, “Thank You Jesus, I accept your death in my place, and I accept Your life in my heart”. To show we mean business we submit to water baptism,  and ask Jesus to baptize us with the Holy Ghost.

God’s Mercy

God saves us by His Mercy, so we can be saved through His Grace. Okay, so you just got all grown up on us, stop and talk about that for a minute okay? Sure, remember, Mercy is an attitude that desires more to forgive, then it does to get even, in fact Mercy doesn’t look to get even, it looks to forgive. Grace is the giving and living by the Spirit of God, and Grace is a gift from God so we can do the things of Grace, and the things of Grace are all the things of Salvation. We can’t cook without the stuff to cook with, and that is like Grace. Grace gives us the ability to do the things of Grace, and in Grace we find the things of God.

There are conditions on all this, when we receive the Mercy of God it’s based on what Jesus said on the Cross, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do”, but Grace comes with the Spirit. Forgiveness of sins means we have sinned, but because of what Jesus did, God the Father will forgive us. This forgiveness doesn’t come to us because of some good thing we do, or have to do, it’s because Jesus asked the Father to forgive us. So is it automatic? Yes and no, yes when we ask for it, no if we don’t.

No matter what we have done, no matter how many times we did it, God is willing to forgive. So, what is Grace? Grace goes further than Mercy, Grace means God looks at us as if we are Jesus, because we have the Spirit of Christ, and it means that which made us sin is being removed from our hearts. The Spirit doesn’t make us robots, nor does He make us slaves, the Spirit gives us the ability to do the things of Christ. How does this fit into water baptism? Good question, we make a vow to God that if He will give us His Mercy, we will give it to others, we will become a forgiving person, not a get even person.

In the Name of Jesus

Have you ever heard someone say, “in the name of Jesus”? Or have you heard of someone asking “where you baptized in the name of Jesus”? That means when you were baptized was the person who baptized you a Christian, and did you believe Jesus died for you. The word “name” means Authority, and Authority means you have a right to do something, but it also has rules. A policeman says “stop in the name of the Law”, but can he stop just anyone? No, he has rules he must obey as well. John’s baptism never asked anyone if they did believe, only if they “repented”, and that they should believe. Oh boy, what is that repent stuff? To repent means we’re sorry for what we have done, and we want to change. It also means we know we have hurt someone else, and that is why we are sorry.

John had the Authority from God to baptize people, and he had the Power to do it, but he did not heal people, or raise the dead. So we find Power is the ability to carry out the authority granted, but if we go beyond the authority, then we’re in rebellion. What if John went about healing people? He would have been in rebellion, but John knew what he was to do, and what he was not to do, and he finished his job with honor.

Looking at the policeman we can see how Authority is his permission to say, “stop in the name of the law”, but what is the name of the Law? Is it Bob? Or Judy? No, that means the Authority given the policeman by the laws. If the person doesn’t stop the policeman arrests them. His ability to arrest means he has the power to arrest them, but that power came because of the authority he already had. The Name of Jesus is like that, when we receive Jesus, He gives us His authority to do things, one of those is to baptize others in water. There are other baptisms as well, fire, the Holy Ghost, the blood, and some more we will find along the way. However, we have to know there is a difference between the baptism John did, and the one we do. Does that mean John’s wasn’t important? No, it was very important, but it also shows the Cross of Jesus brought change, and made it possible for us to have God in us.

Zacharias

Okay, what about John? John’s daddy was a man by the name of Zacharias, a priest in the temple, who was in charge of keeping the lamp burning. In those days they didn’t have light bulbs, they used olive oil in lamps, but to make the olive oil burn, they had to treat it for seven days. They picked the olives, mashed them, took the oil and worked with it until it was pure oil, which took seven days. Zacharias was in charge of the lamp inside of the Temple, and he had to make sure there was olive oil, and make sure the lamp was always burning. One day Zacharias came into the temple to do his work and an angel appeared, but not at the candlestick, rather the angel appeared next to the “altar of incense” (Luke 1:10). The Altar of Incense was a thing that held incense and it stood for the prayers of the saints. Our prayers are kept in heaven, but this Altar was before the Cross and a sign, or reminder to the people that their prayers were heard. That’s really important since the angel tells Zacharias, “your prayers have been answered”. When Zacharias the priest heard that, and saw the angel next to the altar he should have jumped for joy, but he didn’t, instead he questioned the angel.

By the way what was his prayer? He didn’t have any children, and he wanted a son real bad, so much so he prayed for one. Here an angel comes to tell him his prayer is answered, and the angel even stood next to the altar of incense to prove Zacharias’ prayer was answered. Why even pray if you don’t think God is going to answer? When you pray, you must be ready for the answer. Sometimes it’s Yes, sometimes it’s Wait, sometimes it may even be No. When No? When we ask for things that will harm us, or others. If we got mad at someone and prayed for them to be hurt, do we think God would answer that prayer? No, not at all, why? If He answered our prayer, He would have to answer the prayers of others who pray the same thing. Perhaps someone is mad at you, and praying for God to teach you a lesson, would you want God to answer their prayer? Of course not, so Jesus will tell us to pray For those who hurt us, and for a very good reason. We may not want to pray For them, but when we do pray For people, we also receive more of God’s Mercy, and God’s Mercy has the power to not only forgive, but give us peace of mind. Simply, pray for others, in the same way as we would have them pray for us, and in the same way we pray for ourselves. In the case of Zacharias he prayed to be blessed with a child, and God considers a child the greatest blessing of all.

So did Zacharias jump up and down, and shout “Praise the Lord, my prayer is answered”? No, he said, “How shall I know?”. He questioned the angel, which is the same as questioning God’s ability to answer prayer, and  really he questioned his own prayer. The angel then told him, “Your mouth will be closed until the day these things come to pass”. Why? If Zacharias failed to believe his own words, then he would speak against himself, and would mess things up. He was no where near “faith”, and a mile from “belief”. The prayer was something Zacharias “said”, so his words were in the past, and that calls for him to believe, but the answer to that prayer was still in the future, so that called for faith. Zacharias had proof that God was able to bring children from the life of Abraham. The faith part still called for believing today for that which is yet in the future, and Zacharias wasn’t believing anything.

Elizabeth

Elisabeth was the wife of Zacharias, and they would have a child just as the angel said, and they would name that child “John”. Elisabeth had a cousin by the name of Mary, and Mary was engaged to a guy named Joseph. Mary and Joseph were picked of God to raise Jesus, and Mary was picked from among all the women to carry Jesus. So, if God is God why not just go “bang” and have Jesus appear? Because God sets the rules for us, and even God won’t violate them. The rules for being a human is to be born of a woman, and so it was with Jesus. Jesus was to stand for all men, and all of us were born the same way. Why would God pick Joseph and Mary? Because of some good deed they did? No, because they had a lot or money? No, because they were good looking? No, because their hearts would accept the plan of God.

Zacharias would be the father to John the Baptist, but in the case of Mary there had to be Belief in her heart, so she was chosen from among women. Mary’s dad was also named Joseph, and her grand-dad was named Heli, and her family line went back to Nathan, one of the sons of David (Luke 3:23-38). To the Jewish people, if you mother is not Jewish, you’re not Jewish. They kept records to prove one was Jewish, but they kept the records by using the name of the father of the wife. Luke gives us the family line of Mary to show Jesus was Jewish. Matthew gives us the family line of Joseph, Mary’s husband to be, but why? In order to be a king in Israel the family line had to go back to Solomon and David. So, to be a king one had to be related to Solomon and David, but Solomon’s mother was not Jewish, her name was Bathsheba, and she was from a different country. So, we find God also picked Mary and Joseph because of their family history.

Only God could put this together, but did God make Mary love Joseph? Or make Joseph love Mary? No, God saw them together, and knew the lines would be perfect to show Jesus is Jewish, and subject to the promise God made to Abraham, and Jesus was also in line to be king. When the king dies, then the son of the king appointed to be the next king takes over, but wait; Jesus lives, so there can be no more kings. Or can there? When we accept the death and resurrection of Jesus, He makes us kings, but He is still King of all kings. So what is a king? Some hot shot who tells people what to do? Only if they are a bad king. A good king is someone who has authority to do things in the kingdom, and a kingdom is the place where the will of the king is done. A good king always thinks of his subjects, and the well being of the kingdom. A bad king always thinks of himself, and could care less about anything else.

We are kings, but we don’t have our own separate little kingdom, we are all “equal” in the Kingdom of God. No one in the Kingdom is greater than Jesus, but no one is greater than the other members in the Kingdom either.

Now we know why Matthew wrote one family line, and Luke another, they are not wrong, only speaking of two different things. Is the mother of your father, the mother of your mother? No, there is Grandma So-and-so, and Grandma That-And-That. One grandma is the mother of your father, the other the mother of your mother. The same with granddads, one is the daddy of your father, the other the daddy of your mother. Each has a family line, and Luke gives us Mary’s; Matthew gives us Joseph’s. However, before Mary and Joseph were married an angel appeared to Mary six months after the angel appeared to Zacharias, and told her, “You are favored among women”, and then told her she was picked to be the one to bring the Messiah into the world. She knew it took one man and one woman, but this angel was saying, “nope, God has a different way to pull this off, but He still needs you”. Mary wondered how God would do it, so is that unbelief? No, Zacharias wanted to know If it could be done, Mary wanted to know how, she knew it could be. Both Zacharias and Mary asked, but they asked different questions. Once Mary knew God had it all figured out, she said, “Sure, let it be done”.

Jesus not only had to be born of a woman, but He and to be born in a very special way. This was called “born of the flesh”, and our flesh and soul are different. Our flesh is a result of the mixed DNA of our mother and father, but our souls are a creation from God. No two souls are alike, but we know there are “twins”, and “triplets”. God made sure each of us have our own specialness. The skin and body we use on earth give us a right to be on the earth, but the Spirit God gives us, gives us a right to belong to heaven.

So, when Mary asked, “how can this be”, why didn’t the angel close her mouth? Because John the Baptist was going to be born to one woman, and one man, just like any of us, Jesus was not. Mary wondered how God was going to pull it off, not that God couldn’t do it. We can wonder, and wonder about how God is going to do something, but know He is still going to do it, and that is not doubt. “Gee, that’s neat God, how are you going to do it”, is different from “God I don’t think you can do it”. Unbelief is when we don’t think God can do it, but Doubt means God started, but we don’t think He can finish what He started. Dad says he is going to build a tree house, and we say, “I don’t believe it”, which means we don’t think he will even start it, which is unbelief. Then he starts to build it, and we say, “he won’t finish it”, which is doubt. Zacharias didn’t believe God was able to begin, or finish, but Mary knew God was able to begin and finish, and she just wanted to know what she was suppose to do. Isn’t that the way it is with us? “Okay God I’m for it, so what do I do?”. Sometimes it’s “do this”, other times it’s, “just believe”.

In those days Israel was slave to Rome, and Caesar Augustus made an order, and wanted all the males to go back to the towns they were born in. He wanted to record who they were, and how much tax they had to pay. Mary was almost due to have her baby, but orders are orders, and Joseph put Mary on a donkey and headed for the town of his birth, Bethlehem. They lived in a place called Nazareth, which was about 75 miles north of Bethlehem. Bethlehem was below Jerusalem, and to get back to Nazareth they had to pass through Jerusalem, which will become important in a few minutes.

There were a whole bunch of people who were born in Bethlehem, more than the hotels could hold. It was a sell out, every room was taken, and when Joseph got there he couldn’t find one room. Why would God allow that? Surely the God could make sure His own son was born in a fancy room. What do you think would happen? They would be selling bits and pieces of that room for years to come. “Oh this is a piece of the wood from the very room where Jesus was born, only one hundred dollars, a real bargain”. The only things that made Jesus mad, was selling things that should be given away. Jesus cleaned out the temple twice, and both times it had to do with the religious leaders making money off the people of God. Freely we received from God, and freely we’re to give.

There was no rooms to be had in Bethlehem, but one hotel clerk told them they could use one of the stalls for the animals. That was better than nothing, but it all makes sense. Jesus is the “Lamb of God”, which means Jesus was sent into the world to live and then die for you and I as a sacrifice we couldn’t give would be born in the poorest of all places, so we could be kings in the greatest of all places.

Jesus would be the sacrifice that would remove our sins, and make us holy enough to not only stand before God, but to stand next to Jesus. God didn’t want to make us like the angels, but He wanted a Family, a great big family.

The time came, that one time in all the time of man for the birth of Jesus. A time so special that the whole world knows when it’s “Christmas”. Was Jesus really born on December 25th? No, we pick that day to celebrate, and one day is as good as another, the real day is when He is born in our hearts.

Not that far from the stable was a special flock of sheep, and the only shepherds who would remain all night with their sheep were those who were guarding the sheep used in the Temple for sacrifices. Those special shepherds had to accept the “Lamb of God” as more special than the sheep used in the temple. God sent an angel to tell them, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people” (Luke 2:10). We read that and think, “yeah cool, but so?”, in those days there were two groups of people, the Jew and the Gentile, and according to the Jew, only the Jew held a special place with God. This angel is saying “all people”, which means “all people”, Jew or Gentile. The shepherds left their herd and hurried to Bethlehem, and they found Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus.

Joseph and Mary stayed in the area of Bethlehem for a day or two, and then headed to Jerusalem, and would stop at the temple to take care of business. In order for a male Jew to accept and have the Covenant God made with Abraham they needed to endure a special rite by a priest, and that rite was called Circumcision. Not only did they have to undergo that rite, but it had to be done on the eighth day of their life. Okay, what about the Wisemen, did we forget them? No, all things in their order, they will show up.

Mary also had to go through a rite called “Purification” which was done after a woman had a child. Both Mary and Jesus had their rites done in Jerusalem, in the Temple (Luke 2:22-24). On the way back to their home they passed through Jerusalem, and that shows they were on their home before the Wisemen showed up, which we will see shortly.

In the Temple was a man by the name of Simeon, and God told him he would see the Lord’s Christ, and when he saw Jesus he knew that came to pass. Jesus didn’t jump up in Mary’s arms and say, “Look man, I’m the Christ, are you lucky or what?”, Mary didn’t hold Jesus up and say, “Hey Simeon, here is the Christ you’ve been waiting for”. Simeon knew in his heart, and that is the best witness of all.

Joseph and Mary returned to Nazareth the place where they lived, and now we get the rest of the story, and the Three Wisemen. We know most Christmas stories have the Three Wisemen coming to Bethlehem, but the Bible doesn’t say that, and we’re always better off using the Bible. The Three Wisemen were called “Magi”, or those who study the stars, and look for signs of God. “Oh, they did the thing in like find people’s future in the stars”. No, they were different, they looked only for signs about God, not people. They saw in the stars how the Christ was to be born, so they followed a star to Israel, and they headed to the East from where they lived toward Bethlehem. They stopped in Jerusalem, and spoke to king Herod, a Jew who was appointed by the Romans to be over the Jews. Herod was a bad man, a king who thought only of himself, and when he heard of the Christ being born he was afraid for his job, and when the Three Wisemen said they were looking for the Christ, Herod thought he would lose his job for sure. He called the chief priests and scribes, and asked them where would the Christ be born, and they said it was written in the prophets that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem (Matt 2:1-6). Then they added how this Christ would “rule the people Israel”. That was all Herod needed to hear, he was set to stop this thing from happening.  Herod caused all the children three years and under in Bethlehem to be killed. How could God allow that? This was special remember, and God had a special place in heaven for all those children, but the “records” had to show there was only one child born in Bethlehem, and that child was Jesus of Nazareth.

This area about the time of the Wisemen showing up is clearer when we find the Greek word used for “young child” in reference to the Wisemen meeting Jesus means a child around the age of two years old, but not a baby. With that, we add the clue of Herod sending out the order to kill the children two years old and under (Matt 2:13-16). Another clue is when the Wisemen leave Herod they also lost sight of the star, but then they see it again, and follow it to the “house” of Jesus, not the stable (Matt 2:10-11). The Wisemen all brought gifts, gold fitting for a king, frankincense (sweet smelling oil) fitting for the sacrifice of God, and myrrh (used for burials) fitting for the life of the child, raised to die for us. After the Magi see the child, they are warned in a dream not to return to Herod, but why? Because they knew the child was born in Bethlehem, but that isn’t where they found Him, they found Him in his house in Nazareth. If they passed back through Jerusalem, and if they were asked of Herod, “did you find the child?”, they would have to answer “yes, in Nazareth”. They would have to be honest, since that was something the Magi were known for. Joseph was also warned in a dream to leave Nazareth, and take Jesus into Egypt. Dreams are not always signs from God, sometimes they are signs that we shouldn’t eat before we go to bed; however, some dreams are from God, and usually they are warnings. God does get involved in our lives, and instead of killing Herod, God told Joseph to flee into Egypt, and the Wisemen to take another way home. God’s ways, are God’s ways, and they are always better than our ways.

Herod could have gone to the Temple records as well, and there he would have found the name of Jesus as a youth born in Bethlehem, but living in Nazareth. For that reason God warned Joseph in a dream, and told him to take Jesus to Egypt, and raise Him there, until this Herod is no longer in power. Joseph obeyed God, and moved to Egypt.

All this time both Jesus and John the Baptist are being raised, yet we really don’t read about their day to day childhood lives, why? Is there some hidden book to tell us? No, they are an example of how God protects us when we are children growing up. Here is something hard for some to believe, but in Isaiah 57:1 we find God takes the young, knowing what lays ahead for them. It’s far better for a young child to be with the Lord forever, then with us for a short time, and in hell forever. Does that mean if we live a long time we’re evil? No, not at all, it means we can’t question God’s wisdom and knowledge, He always knows better.

When we ask Jesus to come into our hearts, we are like little babies inside, and a growth takes place. When we were first born to our parents, we were not sent to school the day after we were born. There were years of training, learning to walk, learning to talk, and learning many other things. Then came school, where we learned more, and it takes years of learning before we are ready to get a job. Jesus and John were no different, they grew up as any of us. So, why did Jesus have to? Because Jesus experienced the things we do, and none of us have been through more than Him. Also it shows how important God holds our childhood, and wanted Jesus to experience that great time. At the same time Jesus knew who He was, and Luke shows Jesus was very wise, but that doesn’t mean John was ready. John was not the Son of God, he was all human, and Jesus waited until John’s ministry was operating, before the ministry of Jesus could begin. God didn’t tell John, “ready or not here I come”, there was a time to wait until John was fully able to do his job. God will never toss us into something He hasn’t prepared us for, and He always gives us the power to complete whatever He asks us to do.

God gave the Jewish people some holidays, among them were three that were more important than the others. Holidays? Sure, God isn’t all boring and He wants us to have fun too, but He wants us to have “holy fun”, not “evil fun”.

The Day of Atonement was one of those holidays, and it was a day when the high priest would take the sins of the people before God and ask God to “pardon” the sins of the people. Okay, so what is that? A Pardon doesn’t say we didn’t sin, it says there isn’t enough evidence to show we are responsible, and God shows us mercy, and balances the scale. On one side is our sin, on the other is God’s mercy, giving us another start. That’s cool, but Jesus gave us two things greater. Even if the scale is balanced, the sin is still there, right? Well, the Father forgives our sins, because Jesus said, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do”, which means the Father removes our sins from us, and from the scale. However, then we add the Sacrifice of Jesus, which takes us one step further, and “remits” our sins, which means God looks at us as if we have sinned. How can He? Because of Jesus, when we accept Jesus we accept many things, one is how God looks at us. Jesus took our sins, but He never sinned, so God the Father looks at us like He looked at Jesus. The second we receive Jesus and the Sacrifice the Father looks at us and says, “this is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”. Double cool.

Jesus then takes it one step further yet, and gives us His Spirit so we can be like Jesus, and so we can be like God. Wow, does that mean we’re God? Not hardly, it means we can be like Him in attitude.

We might look at the “Blood of Jesus” as some gross thing, but the Blood of Jesus in heaven is nothing like the blood of you and me. The Blood of Jesus is the Blood of the Lamb of God, the very Life of the Anointing of the Christ, so, it’s not like our human blood, or the blood of animals. The Blood of Jesus not only gave Him life, but the Life lives on, and covers us. Once we accept the Spirit of Christ, the Blood of Jesus covers us, and we are in a place where Love, Peace, Faith and Hope live within us.

Well, back to the three holidays, the Day of Atonement being one, Pentecost, or the day when the people give their first fruits from their fields to God, as a sign that they know the ground, the fruit and the power to make the things grow all came from God. The last holiday is “Passover”, and back when Moses was leading the children out of Egypt, and into the Promised Land there was an angel of death that was sent to kill the firstborn male of all the families in Egypt. Why? That was a sign as well, not only of the Power God has to make the world let us go, but to show how the sad it was for the Father to see the Son suffer on the Cross.

God told Moses to take the blood of a lamb and put it on the Door to each house that belonged to a Jew, and the angel would Pass Over, and not touch those in that house. That was called the Passover, but the purpose was not only to remember how the Blood saved them from the death, but how there were those who did die, and they were to remember sin brings death, and how death is not a joy for the Lord, but having our sins forgiven and remitted is a joy.

Anyway we said all that to lead up to a time when Jesus was 12 years old, and it was a great pleasure if the families of the Jews could go to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. They would get together in great caravans, and march to Jerusalem, have the feast, play games, and make a big vacation out of the thing. When Jesus was 12 His family went to Jerusalem for Passover, but instead of hanging with the family, Jesus went to the Temple and was asking questions of the teachers. The teachers were amazed that this 12 year old kid had just a great understanding of the Bible. In the meantime the family packed up and was headed out, and about three days down the road they did a “home alone” thing, and Mary couldn’t find Jesus anywhere. So, why couldn’t she find Him for the three days? Come on, if it was a store, she would have found him real quick. In those days the parents all traveled in one group, and the kids in another. When the children’s part of the caravan joined the parents, Mary couldn’t find Jesus, and she had a fit, where was her son? She and Joseph went back to Jerusalem, and found Jesus still with the teachers, and still asking and learning. Mary asked Jesus, “where have you been? We’ve been worried sick”. Jesus said, “Why did you worry? You know I would be about My Father’s business” (Luke 2:41-51). At 12 years old Jesus knew who He was, but He also knew to wait for the  perfect time to begin. Gee, maybe He had unbelief about being able. No, He knew there was a time to begin, and that is different than thinking it will never begin.

Time passes on, and Jesus is now about thirty years of age, and from His birth to when He was 12, to the time He became about 30 was a time of growing and increasing in wisdom, ability and confidence in the anointing.

Have you ever done something and had to say you were sorry? Ever say something to someone, and have to say you were sorry? Jesus was different, and everything He did was perfect, and without sin, and He never had to say He was sorry to anyone. That is just how perfect Jesus is, and that same attitude lives in us by the Spirit. However, we also have our flesh, and at times we do things we should not, and we should be quick to say we’re sorry to the person we did the wrong to, and quicker to tell God we’re sorry.

John the Baptist was six months older than Jesus, and John’s ministry began as a preparing, or setting the stage. John preached about a baptism that was to come, but the baptism he did was not the one he preached. Huh? Sure, he baptized others in water, but preached that Another (Jesus) would baptize the people with the Holy Ghost and Fire. The “Fire” is not to consume us like some b-b-q, it’s a the same type of fire they used with sacrifices, only it’s not like the fire we use. The fire of God is not seen, it doesn’t burn us, it “removes” things that cause us harm.

Once we’re baptized in water, we can baptize others in water, but none of us can baptize with the Holy Ghost or Fire. So, how does one get the Spirit? Ask God, and He will give. That simple? Yes, it’s that simple. John was baptizing and Jesus came to him and wanted to be baptized in water, so did Jesus have to repent for sin? No, Jesus never committed sin. So why even get baptized? The washing of the sacrifice is part of our water baptism, we are allowing someone to wash us, so we can be used of God. John looked at Jesus, and said, “Man, I have need to be baptized of You”. John wasn’t talking about water baptism, he had been preaching about Jesus baptizing others with the Holy Ghost, so John wanted the Spirit; however, it wasn’t time yet. The Spirit would not be given to anyone until after the Resurrection of Jesus. When John baptized Jesus the Father sent the Holy Ghost in the shape of a Dove representing Peace on earth, and the Father’s acceptance of the Sacrifice, then the Father said, “This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased”.

Jesus told John to let happen the way the Father desires, and John baptized Jesus in water, and immediately the Spirit of God took Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. What? How can that be? What kind of God would do that? A God that knows Jesus will win. The wilderness is not a bad place, it’s the place where we see those bad things on the inside of us that we have hidden, or have ignored, and it’s the place where those things are removed. Why see them? So we can say, “Lord, I don’t like that”, and the Lord sets us free. Like what things? Anger, being mean, nasty talking, hateful attitudes, being stingy, or greedy, all things that are connected to the “fall” of man. How did we get them? Jesus didn’t have any of those things, but the devil wanted to trick Jesus into taking them. In our case the devil came along one day and said, “you know if you cry real loud, they will pay attention to you, and you can get what you want”. We cried real loud, really really loud, and it worked, so we used it. We took of the fruit of the wrong tree, and were taken captive by sin. The Cross of Jesus frees us, and the Blood of Jesus is cleaning us daily. How do we know we are covered by the Blood of Jesus? We have the Spirit. How do we know we have the Spirit? That little voice inside that tells us what is right, and what is wrong. The Spirit of Christ is the Mind, or Conscience of God in us.

Don’t think the Ten Commandments are bad, they are not; they are Good, but they are sent to bad people, or people who could turn bad. They are a written conscience for the people who don’t have the Spirit of Christ. People know not to steal, because the Ten Commandments say so, but we know not to steal because Jesus in us says so. People without Christ need something to tell them it was wrong to steal, but when we think about stealing, that little voice inside says, “no, that’s wrong”. We are then “convicted”, which means we feel inside how wrong it is. Those without Christ feel it’s wrong when they are caught. When we think about lying, that little voice says, “are you sure that is the truth?”, and this shows we have accepted the Spirit of God, and the Conscience of God is within us. Those without Christ try to find some way around God’s Laws, they think if they have a “right” that it’s Right to it. Not so, having a right granted by man doesn’t mean the act is Right in God’s eyes. Abortion is one example, it’s not only very self-centered, but it takes away the right of God to give someone a soul. How would we like it if Mary said, “No, I don’t want any children, this one is to be aborted”? How would we like it if John’s mother aborted him? Jesus would be standing at the River Jordan, and no John, thus no baptism, no ministry, no Cross, and no Salvation. Having a right, doesn’t mean it is right.

The devil came at Jesus with three temptations, and temptations are suggestions that go into our minds and when we buy the suggestion we are drawn to do something that is wrong. God cannot tempt us to do evil, since there is no evil in God. So, we know there must be two things to make a temptation work its evil, the one who is doing the tempting must have some evil in them that causes them to try and make us do evil, but the one who is tempted must also have some evil in them in order for them to be tempted. Without both the evil in the one doing the tempting, and the evil in the one being tempted, there is no temptation. So what would it be? If the there is no evil in the one doing the tempting, then it’s a test. God will test us to show us where we’re at, and how much we have grown, or to show us we haven’t grown as much as we think. An example? Sure, someone comes up to us and says, “you know what is funny? Trip a blind person”. We know that is wrong, but what made them say that? Evil I them, a desire to do wrong, and enjoy it. When they attempted to get us to do the wrong, they were tempting us to do evil. What if said, “yeah, sure, that’s cool”? We were tempted, so there was an evil in us. What if we say “are you nuts, that is so wrong”? We were tested, but that doesn’t mean they were not evil. That is what happened to Jesus, the devil suggested things that were evil, Jesus said, “no way”, so the temptation was not complete, showing Jesus won.

The wilderness for us is get rid of those things that cause us to do wrong. Of course Jesus didn’t have any of those things, so why even go into the wilderness? To beat the devil, and show Jesus is always greater than any and all evil.

Did Jesus sit on a rock in the wilderness, or did He go about doing things? He went about doing things; John’s account shows Jesus did a bunch of things, including cleaning out the temple, taking to Nicodemus, and the woman at the well, as well having some disciples with Him. Among other things we know Jesus “fasted” during the forty days, and a fast is when someone doesn’t eat. Forty days is a long time to go without food, but Jesus did it.

Once John saw the Dove at the baptism of Jesus, he knew his work was really done, God had accepted the Sacrifice, and when he saw Jesus the next day, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God”, and two of John’s disciples left John’s ministry and followed Jesus. One of those is named “Andrew” (Jn 1:40), and the other isn’t identified until we get to the meeting in Acts 1. Who was the other one? Judas, Judas was with the ministry from the beginning, he did many things, and held an important office, yet he allowed his old fall nature to control him to the point of even betraying Jesus to get his own way. Judas shows when we don’t allow the Spirit to deal with the evil in us, we will take the Good God gives us, and twist it to evil. Judas cast out devils, but it he never took on the old nature, and allowed it to tempt him to do something that was so wrong, no child has been named “Judas” since.

Peter would meet Jesus for the first time at this time, but Peter would not be called into the ministry until after the 40 day fast. Nonetheless we find Philip, Nathanael (Nathaniel), Andrew, and Judas as active disciples with Jesus, even during the forty day fast.

Jesus would clean out the Temple in the very beginning of the fast, and correct those who “sold the dove”, or made money from the things the Holy Ghost gave them. Regardless of what it is, we are not suppose to sell the things of God. That was so important it was the first thing Jesus would do.

Jesus would also do the miracle of the wedding at Cana, and that miracle was turning the water into wine. So, why do that? To prove He is a big shot? No, not at all, it was a symbol of what His ministry was all about. We are vessels like the jars used at the wedding, God forgives us, and fills us with His Mercy (water), then the Holy Ghost turns that Mercy into Grace (wine), then we are happy, useful, faith living people.

What else does the wedding at Cana tell us? We see Mary, but where is Joseph? We also know Mary went to live with Joseph’s brother, and we say “so what?”. We put that with the Jewish traditions, and we find out something interesting. Mark tells us Mary had other children, but in the Jewish way of life if Joseph died, then Mary would go to live with Joseph’s brother, and would help raise the children of Joseph. Instead of calling Mary “aunt”, Mary would be like a second mother. All this shows two things, most of the ministry team of Jesus consisted of people related to Mary and Joseph in some manner; next Joseph had died by this time. Mary was a type of single mother, Jesus was without an earthly dad, yet He always knew He had His heavenly Father. Faith was not something Jesus used to avoid danger, or terrible events, it was something that kept Him in touch with His heavenly Father during those hard times.

Jesus would also meet Nicodemus and explain about being Born Again, so what is that? We are all born into this world in the flesh (not just skin, but that which connects us to the earthly), and in order to be like Jesus we must be born again, or a second time. How can that be? Nicodemus wanted to know that as well, he thought we had to go back into our mother’s belly. No, that would be flesh again. Jesus died on the Cross so we can say, “Jesus died for me”, and that means we can accept the death of Jesus in our place, which then gives us the right to be born of the Spirit. Where does this take place? If the flesh is on the outside, where do you think the Spirit is? Inside? Good, that’s exactly what happens.

Nicodemus, was a teacher, and a Pharisee, and saw Jesus clean out the temple of those who sold the dove, and he knew that was a miracle. Why a miracle? To enter the Temple, and do those things took a miracle. Nicodemus wanted to know how Jesus could do that, and simply walk out of the Temple without any of the priests tossing stones at Him. Nicodemus knew Jesus was from God, and Jesus told Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say unto you, Except a man be Born Again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (Jn 3:1-3). What has that to do with God being with him? Nicodemus didn’t even ask a question about being Born Again, but Jesus answered, so what does that mean? Jesus knew what was on the heart of Nicodemus, and this man was a religious leader all his life, and he never saw anyone like Jesus. Jesus was telling Nicodemus how he could be “from God”, and how it was going to take something like a birth, but only one that could come to pass when the Cross of Jesus came to pass.

This was still the time of the wilderness, and Jesus was taken into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Why would the Father allow Jesus to be tempted? The Father knew Jesus would win the battle, but the experience also shows us how the devil works. Jesus went without food for forty days, and then the devil came and said, “If you be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread”. Did God make the stones bread? No, but the devil was tempting Jesus to take the creation of God, and make it into something it was never intended to be, just to please the flesh. Could Jesus have turned the stones into bread? Sure, but why? We know while He was at the well His disciples went into town to get Him something to eat, so God was providing in a way God wanted to. Jesus wasn’t about to do anything the devil suggested, and Jesus said, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”. Wow, think about that, every word? Not just a few, or just the ones we like, but all of them. How can that be? How can we as humans live by all the words of God? We as humans can’t, that is why Jesus came, so we could have the Spirit of Christ in us, so we can live the life of God on this earth.

The devil came again, only this time he gave Jesus a false vision, and in the vision he took Jesus to a place where Jesus could impress the people, and make the people obey. The devil showed Jesus the very top of the temple, and told Jesus, “if you cast yourself down, the angles will hold you up”. Where did the devil get that? From the Bible, so don’t think the devil won’t use the Bible, he will, but he always uses it in a manner God never intended. Like using a lawn mower to vacuum the rug, right equipment, wrong usage. The devil will twist verses to trap us, he will deny the Bible to trap us, he will tempt us with fear to trap us, but if we have Jesus, then we know Greater is Jesus in us, than the devil.

Jesus went right back to using the Bible to answer the devil, and said, “you shall not tempt God”. Tempting God is putting a test on God to see if He is telling us the truth or not. Faith knows God cannot lie, what God says, God says. Jesus knew the angels would hold Him up, He didn’t have to test God. Neither did Jesus attempt to impress the people, He was not making a show out of this, it was serious, and the people had to make their own choices.

The devil came again, and this time he told Jesus if Jesus would only bow, then he would give Jesus all the people, and then he said it was in his power to do so. What a jerk, as if he owned the people. Think about it, when we came to Jesus no devil could stop us. The devil owns nothing, not even hell. That’s right, that is where the devil will end up, but God still owns it. Here the devil said, “You came for the people, bow to me and I will give them to You?. Just one little bow, one small one, just one knee. No way, that would mean the devil was king over Jesus. No way, no way, and no way. Did Jesus come to save the people? Sure, but He was going to do it the way the Father wanted, not the way the devil wanted. Oh yeah, the devil is a tricky rascal, but he can’t devour just anyone. No, he looks for someone who will listen to him, and obey him. If we obey the devil what is that? Bowing? Sure is. Better to obey God.

Jesus had enough of these games and told the devil, “get behind Me”. The devil is always limited in what he can use, and he used all of them on Jesus. Now did the devil go “boo”? No, did the devil hit Jesus? No, did the devil possess Jesus? No, stories to scare us are not Bible. The devil is defeated, and no one ever saw a dead horse win a race.

During the forty day fast Jesus and His disciples were also busy baptizing people in water, although Jesus didn’t baptize any, only His disciples did, including Judas (Jn 3:22-24). We know this is still the time in the wilderness, since John was not yet cast into prison (Jn 4:24), but when the forty day fast ended John was in prison (Mark 1:14).

Since Jesus and John each had a ministry going on, there came the a question, who was greater? The baptism of John? Or the one the disciples of Jesus were doing? See, if Jesus was baptized of John, surely John was greater. Not so, and that is the wrong way to figure things. That is the same as saying Jesus loved Lazarus more than John, since Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, but not John. We can’t figure out those things by using our own minds, we will get it all messed up. John said in order for Jesus to increase, John had to decrease, which means John knew in order for the ministry of Jesus to become all God wanted it to be, John had to step back. People would always look at Jesus as being subject to John, rather than seeing the purpose of John was to baptize Jesus, making Jesus much more important than John.

Toward the end of the forty day fast Jesus also went to see the woman at the well, and this women as not liked by the other women in her town. She had been married a bunch of times, and she was not living a very good life style. She was at the well all by herself, the other women all turned their backs on her, but not Jesus. The disciples wondered why Jesus would even talk to this woman, but Jesus wanted to save her, not condemn her.

Jesus used the well, and the water in the well to explain God’s Mercy to the woman, and at that very moment Jesus was showing her mercy. Jesus acted like the well was a person, and the water was in the well, and the people had to get it out, but Jesus would say we are like that well, only there is a great spring in us, and the Water comes out in great amounts. When we are in need of Mercy, we know from inside of us will spring up God’s Mercy. Why? We have the desire to forgive. This woman was hated by other women, and for her to overcome she needed to forgive. Could she? Jesus would tell her the time is coming when all people could have the Spirit of God in them, and from the Spirit that Mercy (Water) would come.

While Jesus was talking to the woman at the well His disciples went to town to get Him something to eat, after all it has been almost 40 days (Jn 4:8). When they return they saw Jesus talking to the woman, and wondered “why would He talk to her?”. The woman was so excited she ran into town and told the people about Jesus, and they came to see for themselves. The disciples wanted Jesus to eat, but Jesus said, “I have meat you don’t know about”. They wondered, “who gave Him food?”. Jesus wasn’t talking about food, food, but about the joy of seeing people come to God. The town’s people came and wanted to know more, and Jesus stayed with them a couple of days, which ended the fast and the wilderness experience.

When Jesus came out of the wilderness, John the Baptist was in jail, and Jesus then heals the son of the official (Jn 4:43). Which was the second miracle, the turning the water into wine was the first. So, then why did Nicodemus think cleaning the temple out was a miracle, and Jesus didn’t? A healing is bringing something back to what it’s suppose to be, a miracle goes beyond that, and brings something where there is no foundation for it. Say huh? A cut that is healed is a healing, but when a finger is cut off, and a new one grows in its place, that’s a miracle. The cleaning of the temple was healing the temple, but turning water into wine? That is a miracle. Water was not made to be wine, but why do turn it to wine to begin with? To make the people at the wedding happy? No, it was a sign to us, we are baptized in water (mercy), but the Blood of Jesus is cleaning us (wine). The water into wine shows a progression, or growth, and it relates to being Born Again. Jesus was teaching on the Cross long before He went to the Cross.

It’s important to keep in mind before Jesus came out of the wilderness He did many things, He cleaned out the temple of those who sold doves. So what does that mean? The people were required to give sacrifices, and if they were poor, all they could afford was a dove, since there were so many of them in that area. They would bring their dove to the priest, and he would inspect it. However, the priest would say, “nay, this one is no good, you must buy the improved one over there at the love offering table” (paraphrased). Of course the person selling the dove in the temple was cheating the people, the same dove that cost one dollar on the outside cost five dollars in the temple. We are the sheep of God, but pity the person who steals from us in the “name of God”.

However, the sign of the dove went much further. We know when John baptized Jesus the Holy Ghost appeared like a dove, not that the Holy Ghost is a dove, but the Holy Ghost took on the “form” of the dove as a sign of Peace, and acceptance by God. After the baptism Jesus went into the temple, and there were the religious rulers selling doves to the people at prices that were way too high. Jesus got mad, and turned over the tables, and punished those who sold the doves. Two times Jesus got mad, and both times it had to do with the religious leaders using the temple of God in way God never intended. Jesus never got mad at the Romans, or the people. Being a leader in the church is not easy, they always have to keep their eyes on Jesus, and their ears open to the Holy Ghost.

When Jesus turned over the tables, and ran those who sold the dove out of the temple, the religious rulers thought that was a “miracle”. No other person, not even a Roman had ever done anything like that. However, Jesus saw it as correction, and a healing, not a miracle. For that reason John, Luke, Matthew and Mark don’t call the cleaning of the temple a “miracle”.

After the wilderness Jesus was on His way to the city of Capernaum in Galilee to set up the ministry, and gather the rest of the disciples, and a man came to him with a big problem. The man’s son was in Capernaum, the city Jesus was going to, but both the man and Jesus were in Cana, a city on the way to Capernaum, but still some miles away. The man wanted Jesus to go to his son, and heal him. Jesus said He didn’t have to go to the son, the healing power of God is not limited by place, or time. Jesus was on His way there, so why not tell the man, “Sure, as soon as I get there”? This was for us, it shows us that Jesus doesn’t need to be in the same room with us to heal us, or hear us. He was in one city, and healed the man’s son who was in another city.

Jesus told the man to go about his business, his son was healed. The man went about his everyday business, and then his servants came to him with happy news, “your son lives”. The man wanted to know when his son started to get better, and his servants told him “on such and such day, at such and such an hour”, which was the same time Jesus said, “Go, you son lives”. From this we know God will send His Word, and His Word will heal us.

All these areas bring up the word “faith”, and we can get all confused over thinking God hasn’t done something for us because we think we lack faith. Often we attempt to make our faith do things it was never intended to do, and then think we don’t have any. For instance the Bible tells us if we say unto that Tree be gone, and we have faith, it will go. To “test” that we walk out into the back yard and say to some tree “go away”. It doesn’t go, and we say, “well that didn’t work, I must not have faith”, or “it didn’t happen, so the Bible is wrong”. To begin with we were “testing” God to see if it would work, and that lacks faith. Next the Bible uses things called “metaphors” (met-a-fors), which means the Bible uses one thing to talk about another. For instance, someone promised to give us ten dollars, so we tell mom, “hey mom I’m going to go to the store and charge a bible”. Mom says, “what are you going to use for money?”. We say, “Old so and so promised to give me ten dollars tomorrow”. Mom then says, “don’t count your chickens before they hatch”. Chickens? We’re not going to buy any chickens. What is she talking about? She used a metaphor, she pointed to one thing to explain another. She is telling us wait until we have the money before we act. She could have said, “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”, which is the same thing as saying, Wait until it’s in your hand. The Bible has tons of metaphors, God said the Jewish people would be as the “sand of the sea”, so are they sand? No, of course not, God was showing how many of them would come from Abraham. God also called the religious order of Israel the “Fig Tree”, so do they walk around with a fig tree sticking out of their head? No, but Adam used “fig leaves” to cover himself, and from that we find the Law of Moses merely covers sin, it can never do away with it. All this shows the “tree” is not a real tree, it’s a figure of speech, or a metaphor to show us something. That Tree or Mountain means things that block us from God, and when we accept Jesus we can say to the all the rules that are against us “go away”.

The Law of Moses is good, the Ten Commandments are good, and both came from God, but we never judge a law on that, we judge the law by seeing to whom it was directed. The Ten Commandments are given to people who lack a Conscience, they have to be told “it’s wrong to steal”. When we have the Spirit of Christ in us we know it’s wrong, no one has to tell us. In fact the Spirit is changing us so we won’t even thing about stealing.

The Law of Moses came from God, but it was given to a people who lacked the Spirit of Christ. When we accept Jesus, we accept all the Cross of Jesus grants us. We will find many things, all good, but we will find there are some things we have to do, among them is accepting a change in our attitude. Since we no longer are under a law that judges us, we can no longer judge others. Since we are no longer under a law that picks out the wicked things in a person’s, just so we can feel superior, we no longer go about looking for the evil in others. Our attitude changes as we grow in the Spirit, and then we obtain a New way of looking at things, and a New way of doing things.

Having said all that, let’s look at some of the healings of Jesus, and then we will look at some other things He did as well. There were people who suffered from “leprosy”, which is a real bad skin disease. It’s so bad the people would lose feeling in their fingers, and toes. For years man thought that Leprosy caused the person’s fingers to fall off, but now we know they lost all feeling in their fingers and toes, and the rats would eat them off. That’s is way not cool, and back in those days they had camps away from the cities, and they would send the “Lepers” there. Not Jesus, when they came to Him He healed them. Jesus healed based on one of three things, when someone asked for their self, when someone asked Jesus to heal a friend, family member or servant, or when no one asked.

People had faith in God, not just a faith to be healed, but a faith that God would heal them. It’s one thing to believe you will be healed, another to believe God will do it. There was a man with a real bad hand, and Jesus asked the man to stretch it out, and it was healed. The man didn’t ask, in fact the man was sitting in the midst of a bunch of unbelieving Pharisees, and would rather just be left alone, but he did as Jesus said. There were blind people who were able to see again, and one man who was born without eyeballs, and Jesus took some clay and put it in the eye sockets, and the man washed his face, and had eyeballs, and his sight. Now if Jesus wasn’t going about bragging on Himself, why do these healings? It seems that would draw attention, after all the people ran to Him saying, “Heal us”. Two ways anyone can look at this, one is from what is called the “wisdom of man”, the other from what is called the “Wisdom of God”. Knowledge and wisdom are different, knowledge is brain stuff, but wisdom is how we deal with events and people. The Pharisees saw the healings as evil, and they attacked Jesus. Some today see the healings as Jesus merely promoting Himself, others don’t think Jesus heals. However, Jesus said He came to do the work of the Father, and what the Father told Him to do, He did. In all the things Jesus did, He never told anyone, “thou are sick, and thou will get sicker”. Does that mean sickness is a sin? No, not really, all though we can be in sin, and get sick. We can get sick because of some weakness in our flesh, or because we did something dumb, like going outside on a very cold day without a hat and coat. Whatever, we know Jesus has ways to heal us. “Oh yes, I never go to a doctor”. That doesn’t mean you have faith, what would you do if Jesus said, “I want you to go to a doctor”? “Oh no Jesus, I have faith”. Wrong, not doing what Jesus wants us to do is rebellion. We made it sound like faith, but it pride wearing a mask of faith. Faith means we do what the Lord tells us to do.

All these healings showed the people a time of change had come, a time when they no longer had to run to the religious leaders, but they could come to the Lord on their own. It didn’t matter if they had sickness, or sin, or were cast outs, they could come to the Lord and be healed, forgiven, and accepted. We also know, Jesus never turned anyone away, even if they later yelled, “crucify Him”. Jesus knew all things before they were things, and He healed people just because they asked, and He never said, “Heal you? No, way in six months you’re going to crucify Me”.

While all these healings were going on we find John the Baptist in jail. When Jesus was in the wilderness John was still baptizing, and preparing the way for Jesus. One time we find John was in one area baptizing people, and the disciples of Jesus in another, so even in the “wilderness” Jesus was doing things (Jn 3:22-36). When Jesus came out of the wilderness John was in jail, arrested by mean Herod (Jn 3:24 & Mark  1:14). Herod was a Jew who was placed in a position of power by the Romans, kind of using a Jew to rule the Jews, while still controlling the Jews. This was not the same Herod who killed all the children, this is another Herod. Anyway, Herod had a brother by the name of Philip, and Philip had a wife and a daughter. Herod took Philip’s wife as his own, and her daughter went with her. John saw this was wrong, and he said so, more than once. One day there was a party put on by Herod, and the daughter danced before Herod in a naughty way, and Herod asked her, “I will give you anything you want”, and she said, “give me John the Baptist’s head on a silver plate”. Herod opened his big mouth, and his pride wouldn’t let him say no. At first he put John in jail, but the daughter kept hounding him, and one day he had John’s head cut off and served up on the silver plate. From that came the saying, “serve up his head on a platter”, and it’s not a good saying, it means we allow people to make us do bad things.

Now, if Jesus did all these healings, and raised people from the dead, why didn’t He save John? John said he had to decrease in order for Jesus to increase. The people were making a “god” out of John, so it wasn’t God who caused John to be beheaded, but the people not seeing how John was less than Jesus, and the purpose of John’s ministry was to prepare the way for Jesus, not steal the way from Jesus. It was far better for John to go, then to stay and cause division among the people. Wisdom tells us not to question the things of God, but to understand God has a good reason for all things, even the things we don’t like. Yeah, finding the reason is hard at times, but the “good” is there if we seek it.

Jesus also taught the people, sometimes He taught them with direct words, like “you must forgive”, and other times He used “metaphors”, and “parables”. A parable is a story based on a simple truth to show a greater truth. If we took a rock and tossed it in the air, and said, “that is how an airplane flies”, that would not be a Parable. However, if we used a bird, and showed how an airplane is able to move through the air like a bird, that would be a parable. When Jesus talked about the “seeds”, “fields”, and a “certain” person, they were real things, but used to show us other things.

However, before all that begins Jesus begins to add disciples to His ministry, and to teach the people in and around Capernaum. Why go to Capernaum? Why not Jerusalem? Or why not stay in Nazareth? Well, Luke and John show why Jesus didn’t stay in Nazareth. Jesus entered the temple in Nazareth, and they asked Him to read from the Scriptures. Jesus opened up their Bible and began with, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me…” (Luke 4:18). Wow that alone is powerful, think about it. Is the Spirit of the Lord in you? Sure, it you asked to be Born Again, then you are anointed of God. So then, what does Anointed mean? Anointed means God has given you the power to do the things God has set before you to do. Paul said he could do all things through Christ WHICH strengthens him, and we find the word Christ means Anointed, and also represents the Body of Christ. Paul knew the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, thus he also knew he was anointed to do the work God had set before him, and he knew the anointing and the people in the Body were the Which that gave him strength to go on.

Jesus knew that better than anyone, and continued with the saying, “to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19). That is a bunch of stuff, but it shows how much Jesus knew He was to do. Those who are poor in Spirit, or better those who lack the Spirit will hear the Gospel, and the word Gospel means Good News. If we’re brokenhearted, Jesus will fix us, if we are confused, and blinded to the Truth, Jesus will heal that too.

You would think everyone would say “Okay man, that’s what we’ve been waiting for”. No, they questioned Jesus, and said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”, then Jesus said, “no prophet is accepted in his own country” (Luke 4:24 & Jn 4:44). Capernaum also opens the door to those Metaphors were talking about. When the Bible talks of people being a “sea” that is a metaphor, and it doesn’t mean people are really living in the sea like a bunch of fish. When the Bible calls us “sheep”, it doesn’t mean we will turn into real sheep when we accept Jesus. These are words that tell us something, the sea is a big place, but it has deep places, and dangerous hidden places, and things in it we don’t want to meet face to face, thus the metaphor Sea means World. Having said that, the Bible shows us the World and the Earth are two different things, the world is the place that contains all the people who are not Christian or Jewish, and they are called “Gentiles”. Before Jesus came there were two groups of people, the Jew, who was promised something by God, and the Gentile who was not Jewish. After Jesus came we have a third group, us, the Christians, who are neither Jew or Gentile.

The Earth is the kingdom of heaven, not the Kingdom of God, but the kingdom of heaven. Heaven is a place, God a personage, so the kingdom of heaven is the place where all the people of God dwell, but the Kingdom of God is the place where God dwells. The Kingdom of God is within us, but we are in the kingdom of heaven. Hope that makes sense, and it’s like saying, “I am a student, but I go to a school”. Student is who you are, but the school is where you go. You wouldn’t say, “I am a school, and I go to a place called Student”. Heaven is a place, God a personage, we are in the kingdom of heaven, but the Kingdom of God is in us.

Anyway Jesus picked Capernaum because it was next to a Sea, and we see that as Christians we are no longer of the Sea, but we will “catch” those who still are in the Sea. Jesus sees Peter again and tells him, “I will make you a fisher of men”, so does that mean Peter goes around with a fishing pole and hook to catch people? No, it shows how Jesus pulls people to Him, people don’t pull Him to them. Jesus didn’t become worldly to catch the world, He remained free from the world, so He could save us who were in the world.

At Capernaum Jesus adds to the His disciples, but then He teaches the people how to have Mercy. Jesus connects Blessed and Mercy together, and the word Blessed means “A reason to be happy”. Does being blessed mean you are always happy? No, it means you have a reason to be happy. We can have a reason to be happy, but go about all mad and nasty. There are many who don’t have a reason to be happy, because they don’t have Jesus. Once we have Jesus, we have a reason to be happy, amen?

The teaching Jesus is about to give us is called “The Beatitudes” or “Having an attitude of blessing”, or a “blessed attitude”, and some call it the “Sermon on the mount”. Attitude is important it’s the first thing people use to judge us by, they hear our attitude and make up their mind about us. With that we find we are to have the “mind of Christ”. Yikes, do we get some other mind than our own? Do we forget who we are? No, not at all; have you had a friend say, “you know what I want to do?”, and you say “no”, then they tell you and you say, “wow, me too”. Or they say, “you know what I think?”, and you say “no”, and they tell you, then you say, “yeah me too”? You were thinking like them, but the Mind of Christ not only let’s us think like Jesus, we also gain something else, the way Jesus would see things. Jesus saw things others didn’t, the Pharisees would say something thinking they were really smart, and wise, but Jesus saw the deepest part of their heart and knew they were playing a mind game. We are given the Mind of Christ, which is the Attitude of Christ when we are Born Again. Jesus was teaching these people what they “could have”, if they continued to believe until He was raised from the dead. The biggest lesson is how they all ran when the pressure came, showing us without the Mind of Christ we won’t have the courage to stand and face events in a Godly manner. Our old attitude was “punch them out”, the mind of Christ says, “love them, they know not what they do”. The teaching Jesus is about to give tells us the Attitude we will get when we are Born Again, and what to expect from that Attitude.

Jesus went up to a mountain, which means He was giving us the Commandments He was bringing. Moses went to a mountain to get the Ten Commandments from God, Jesus is going to give us Commandments from a mountain. We know these are Commandments by the wording Jesus uses, and He tells us, “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandments, and shall teach men to break them, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do them, and teach them to others, they shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:19). Under the Law of Moses it was “do it or be cursed”, and a curse is “trouble upon you”. Here Jesus doesn’t even talk about a curse, but He does talk about being blessed.

Jesus then begins by telling the people they are Blessed if they do as He says. The reward for walking in Mercy is great, those who are poor in spirit, or better, those who a lack the Spirit will have the kingdom of heaven, where they will find the Kingdom of God. If we have compassion on people, we will feel sad when they are sad, and hurt when they hurt, and Jesus says we are Blessed, for we will be comforted. If we are meek, which means if we don’t go about starting fights, and trouble, we don’t go about bragging, or being prideful, then we are meek and blessed, and we shall inherit the earth. The Earth? Is that one of those metaphors? Yes, this doesn’t mean we will have the dirt earth, it means we will have the Kingdom.

If we always want more and more of the Truth, and more and more of the Righteousness of Jesus, we are blessing and we shall find what we seek. What is Righteousness? It means we can stand before God like we really belong there. Man works and works to impress God and man, but no one impresses God. However, Jesus didn’t come to impress God, or man, He came to save man, and He gained the highest, and purest of all Righteousness, and gave it to us. This goes right along with “seek you first the Kingdom of God, and His Righteousness”. If we do then “things” shall be added to us, so do we seek the things? No, they are added by God. So, do we seek the Kingdom to get the things? No, that is greed, and wrong. When we seek the Kingdom of God, which is the same as seeking to walk in the Spirit of Christ, and we stop trying to impress God, but simply serve Him because we love Him, then we will find all these Things (blessings) added to us. Does that include Things like Things? Sure, but if we’re blessed, we’re happy, and able to show people about Jesus, and that is the point.

The heart of a person is also two things, we know about the pump that is really the heart, but Jesus talks about the “center of a person” or that which makes a person a person. If we are “pure of heart” we are blessed and we will See God. What is pure of heart? Honest, open, merciful, and more important Born Again. How about a guy who gets a heart transplant? What if his old heart was pure, but his new one isn’t? Yikes, give it back!!!! No, this isn’t talking about the flesh heart that pumps blood in us, it means the “center” of who we are, that hidden part in us that gives us ideas, and courage, and many things. David sang to God, “create a new heart in me”, and that wasn’t asked for a heart transplant, it was asking for a Spirit that was pure and honest. Of course David couldn’t be Born Again, but we can.

A Peacemaker is not someone who goes to countries to make them have peace between ach other, it’s someone who shows how we can have peace with God. If we show people how true Peace is having Peace with God, we are blessed. A real peacemaker is one who makes peace between those in the Body of Christ, which is the real the meaning of Peacemaker as Jesus used it.

Okay, what if our stand for Jesus makes others mock us? What if call us names? Golly we’re still blessed, IF we pray for them, and not fight with them. When we are attacked for the sake of the Love of God in Jesus, Rejoice, dance, be happy, God is about to bless you greatly (Matt 5:3-12). Jesus goes over the “Blessed are you” areas, but then spends the rest of the teaching telling us to keep that Blessed Attitude.

First we don’t teach people to break these Commandments, rather we teach people to keep them. The Ten Commandments were good, but Jesus is saying it was time to move up to greater Commandments, and a Commandment is something that we can’t change, or ignore, and the Commandments of Jesus always have a blessing attached to them. So, if we don’t do them, are we cursed? No, we just don’t get the blessings.

Jesus tells the people the way the Ten Commandments taught, but He is telling them there will be a better way. So does that mean the Ten Commandments are bad? No, it means there is a better way. One car can be better than another, but that doesn’t mean the lesser car is bad. Remember the Ten Commandments are the written conscience for those who lack a Godly conscience, but we have the Mind of Christ. It was said in old times, “Thou shall not kill”, which means you can’t take that life of another without a Godly, and Just cause. However, Jesus says if you hate someone, that is the same is the desire to kill them. Jesus takes us to the Root of our thoughts, and tells us to consider our thoughts, before we allow them to be actions. We sit and wonder, “you know I don’t like that kid, I think I will hit them”, that is the thought, and the thought is not evil, but if we allow that thought to guide us, and go ahead and hit that kid then we are evil. Jesus is telling us to stop and put that thought to the test, “is that what Jesus would think?”, “is that what Jesus would do?”, if not it’s the wrong mind.

Then Jesus talks about “eyes”, but don’t forget He is using those “metaphors”, there is no way Jesus wants us to harm ourselves, and He is merely telling us if our eyes wonder into places they should not, take authority over them, and refuse to allow them to do those things. If we find ourselves looking into books we know we shouldn’t, say “No, I will not!!!”, and “shut the eye” to the evil.

When man lacked God in their heart, then God told them “an eye for eye”, since that was all they understood, but with God in our hearts we have the power to forgive. When Jesus tells us to “turn the other cheek”, that doesn’t mean to tell someone, “here is my other cheek, go ahead and hit me again”, it means we refuse to do them, that which they did to us. If they hit us, we will first try to walk away. Some of the things Jesus said didn’t seem to make sense, but they work, and when they do work we know they do make sense. Have you ever laid in bed at night wanting someone to pay for what they did to you? That is a failure to turn the other cheek. Jesus will repay for all the wrongs done us, IF we forgive those who have done us wrong. Jesus wants us to go on with our life, and live in joy, rather than walk around trying to get even with everyone. When we pray for those who hurt us, we will be able to forgive them.

Jesus then taught the people how to pray, and what are the important matters. The Holy Spirit is here on earth, our heavenly Father is in heaven; therefore, Heaven is our home, the place where our Father is. The Holy Spirit is working with us to get us Home, and when we know our heavenly Father has all this in hand, and nothing is going to surprise Him, then we can rest in His power and might. In stead of thinking fifty days ahead, and telling God what we might need, Jesus said take one day at a time, ask God to give us what we need today, and then know God gave it. That’s important, since some people think they got their own need taken care of, and if we have faith in God, we know God supplies.

One of the biggest issues for anyone to receive forgiveness of sin was how we are to forgive others, it was so important that Jesus told us our Father in heaven can’t forgive us, unless we do forgive others. A hypocrite is one who demands for others to do things, or live a certain way, yet they won’t. It’s a kind of a “do as I say, not as I do” thing. A hypocrite will also condemn (judge us guilty) for things we do, yet they do the same or even worse. God is not a hypocrite, He will not forgive us, if we refuse to forgive others. Most hypocrites refuse to believe they are doing the very things they are accusing others of, and that is what we call “self-deceived”, or telling yourself a lie, and believing it. God is not a hypocrite, and He doesn’t make hypocrites. God wants us to do unto others, that which He does unto us. He will also do for us, that which we do for others. If we give mercy to others, then we receive mercy. If we forgive others, then God forgives us.

Jesus also told us we are the Light of the world, when there are no more people on this earth who follow God, then the earth has no reason to stay the earth. As long as we’re here, then people know there is a difference between the darkness of evil, and the Light of God. How are we going to be a Light? Being Born Again makes us different, and the difference is the Light of God in us. Light exposes things we can’t see in the dark, and by being filled with the Holy Ghost we will walk in that Blessed Attitude, and people will know there is a God. However, we have to make up our minds, do we want to serve God? If so, we can’t serve the darkness. Our trust and faith in God will grow when we seek the Holy Spirit (Kingdom of God), and God’s Righteousness (Right standing, or the right to come and go from in front of God). Our trust knows we don’t worry about tomorrow, God has all things in hand. Righteousness, or Right Standing has different forms, the one Jesus gives us is the same one He has. Angels come near the throne of God, but Jesus sits next to the Father. You can’t get more Right than that.

There are some who do all sorts of things to get some Right Standing with God, but no one can get a better Standing than Jesus. Jesus gives us His place and standing when we receive Him. Sure we do things, but not to gain standing, we do things because of our blessed attitude.

Jesus then teaches us about Judging, and how there are two types., and we are only going to do one of them. If we judge someone guilty, that is wrong, but if we’re trying to find the truth, or what is going on, then we have judged righteously. If someone wants to do evil, we judge the evil, not the person. That is hard, and only those with God can do that. God judges some things as evil, and if a person does those things, they take on the evil of the thing. If that same person repents, then they leave the evil behind, and they are no longer part of the evil thing. If we are with one group, and they do wrong, then we leave them, and join a group that does good. That is what we would call, “repenting from the old”, and when we do that we leave the evil behind. Once we do that, we are no longer evil. When we leave darkness and join to the Light, we become Light. If we stay with the darkness, then we end judged with the darkness.

However, we need a beginning, a place to start the growing from. No one builds the second story of a house, without first building the first, and they don’t build the first story until they lay a foundation. Jesus tells us to do the same, don’t build on the wrong foundation, but build on the right one. Mercy is always a good start, the Holy Spirit is better.

Jesus then warns us, there will be some who will say they are “Christian”, but they are not. How do we know? Oh, if they say Jesus is Lord, they must be okay, right? No, anyone can say it, but only a Christian can live it. It’s the Attitude, if they say Jesus is their Lord, yet they back talk about people, talk nasty, say things they shouldn’t, and really don’t care if they do, then they haven’t made Jesus Lord of their life. Jesus calls them “wolves in sheep’s clothing”, but did you ever see a wolf wearing a sheep skin? No, so Jesus must be using one of those Metaphors again. In order to get a sheep’s skin, you have to take it off the sheep (makes sense). Jesus calls us Sheep, but that doesn’t mean He wants us sheared, skinned or abused. A wolf is a loner, they don’t care what they kill, they just look for something to make them happy. A sheep on the other hand is fussy about what they eat, they won’t hurt people just to hurt them, they won’t kill people, they won’t hunt them down, all they want to do is serve man, and provide the wool to keep man warm. A wolf will steal the covering, and they refuse to allow God to change their inside. They look like sheep on the outside, but the inside is the same old darkness. The Holy Spirit does His work on our inside, and we may look the same as we used to, but we don’t act the same. Anyone can play at being religious, they can force their self to say the right things, they can wear the right clothes, get the right hair cut, but inside there is no change. Being a Christian means we are being changed on the inside by the Spirit of Christ.

After Jesus taught the people about Mercy, and how to walk in Mercy, He came down the hill and found a “leper”. Leprosy is not around like it used to be, and we remember how it’s a skin disease that makes the feeling in the fingers and toes go away. Leprosy was thought to spread from person to person like the flu, or a cold, and in the days when Jesus walked the earth there was no immediate cure for Leprosy. One of the signs of Jesus being the Christ was healing the lepers immediately. There was a method in the Law of Moses where a leper could receive healing, but it involved a bunch of sacrifices, and other things, all Jesus did was say, “you’re healed”. The person didn’t have to pay Jesus money, send gifts around the world, do some special act for the community, all they had to do was believe and have faith in the ability of Jesus to cure them.

Then there was a servant of a Roman Centurion who was sick with the palsy, and Jesus healed him. Wait, didn’t Jesus come for the Jews alone? Sure, but the Romans were rulers over the Jews, and since the Centurion was in the land of the Jews, Jesus granted him his desire to see his servant healed. This Centurion understood something about Faith, and how Faith means more than believing. The Centurion had soldiers under him, and when he told the soldiers to do something they did it. This shows he would say something now, and his orders would be carried out in the future, and he had confidence those under him knew he had the authority to give his soldiers an order. The Centurion then said, “I know if you say my servant is healed, then he will be healed”, and Jesus called that great faith. This shows us faith is also the trust and belief in another person to do something. The Centurion knew if he gave an other another person would carry it out, just as if mom says, “take out the trash”, we know she has the authority in the house to tell us that. The Centurion knew Jesus had authority over sickness and disease, and if Jesus said “go” the sickness and disease had to go, no questions, no debates, no refusal, it had to go.

Jesus then entered the house of Peter, and Peter’s mother-in-law was sick with a bad fever. Jesus touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she got out of bed and ministered to Jesus and the disciples. So, did Jesus heal her, just to get her to wait on them? No, she did it because she appreciated what Jesus did.

One day Jesus and His disciples got into a ship, and they began to cross the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee wasn’t all that big, not like the Pacific Ocean, or anything like that, but it would get some strong winds, and some big waves. Well, they were in the boat and up came the wind, and up came a storm. Jesus was asleep in the ship, and one would think that strange, after all, ever try sleeping in a storm? No? The boat is being tossed around, and there is Jesus asleep. Just prior to getting in the boat a guy came to Jesus and said, “I will follow You”, but Jesus told him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but I have no where to lay My head”. Yet here He is, laying down His head, and in a storm to boot. So did He lie to the guy? No, it’s those Metaphors again, Jesus was talking about the work to be done, not that He couldn’t sleep. Was the man willing to put all aside, and really follow Jesus? Or was he just talking?

How was Jesus able to sleep? Peace within, even with a storm going on outside. Jesus knew they were going to the other side, the storm said “No, you will stop here”, but Jesus has authority over the earth, and all the things on the earth.

Well the storm is going, the wind is blowing, and the disciples are shaking  in fear. Wouldn’t you? Sure, but Jesus wasn’t. They woke Jesus and said, “Lord save us, we’re going to die!!!!”. Jesus then said something a little strange, as He said, “Why are you fearful, Oh you of little faith”. Huh? There is a big storm thank you very much. What faith? Jesus was with them, they just heard  Him tell a guy there was work to be done. As long as Jesus was in that boat, it would get to the other side. The best place to be in a storm is with Jesus.

During the earthly ministry of Jesus we find two storms on the sea, but none on land, how come? The sea standing for the world shows that is where all the storms are, there are no storms in the Kingdom.

The other storm comes later, but it also relates to this one. In this storm Jesus was in the boat, but what about those times when Jesus isn’t in the boat? Jesus told the disciples to cross over the sea, and He would see them on the other side. Jesus never guessed at anything, so if He says “I will see you there”, He will see us there. This other storm was just after Jesus fed 5,000 people with just a few fish and a couple of loaves of bread. That is a something, and then He told His disciples to go to the other side, and they got into the boat, and headed out, but half  to the other side a storm came up (Matt 14:22-28). It was just as far to go back, as it was to go on. Should we go on? Maybe Jesus was wrong? Maybe we should go back? What to do? Then they saw a figure walking on the water, and at first they thought it was some sort of evil spirit, but then they saw it was Jesus. Jesus told them, “be not afraid, it is I”. Peter then said, “If it’s you Lord, bid me to come”. Jesus said, “Come”, and Peter walked on the water too. We don’t know how long it has been since you walked on water, but is walking on the water something Jesus told them to do? Later after the Resurrection Peter will be in a boat, and the Lord will be on the shore, and when Peter finds out he jumps into the water and swims to shore. So, why not walk on the water again?

Peter found out something in this experience, Peter began to walk on the water, but then the storm got his attention, and the storm was his real problem. He was showing off, attempting to show Jesus he wasn’t scared, but the storm proved him wrong, and he began to sink (Matt 14:29-30). Peter called out for the Lord to save him, and the Lord did, but then Jesus said, “oh you of little faith, wherefore did you doubt?” (Matt 14:31). What did Peter doubt? Let’s look, and learn. First off we can see how Peter put the Lord in a corner, what was Jesus to say? “No, Peter, it’s not Me, it’s someone else”? No, there was only one answer, and Peter didn’t really ask a “question”, since there was only one answer. There is a thing called a “fleece”, and that means we really don’t know what to do, so we set some sign up for the Lord to do, to give us direction. In the Bible a man didn’t know if he was to go to war or not, so he placed a sheep’s skin (fleece) on the ground and told the Lord, “Lord when I wake and I see the dew on the fleece and none on the ground then I will know to go to war”, and so it was. The next night to make sure the man said, “Lord when I wake and I see the dew on the ground and not the fleece, then I will know for sure”, and so it was. However, a fleece gives the Lord choice, Peter didn’t’. Peter’s walking on the water may have appeared cool, but the command was to get to the other side, and Jesus called what Peter did Little or Puny faith.

Really, the storm was Peter’s problem, he stopped have way and wanted to show off, but the Lord was on His way to the place where He said He would meet them. A good lesson, don’t try to go beyond what the Lord has given us, stick with the plan, and go to the other side.

Back to the time when Jesus was asleep in the boat, when they got to the other side there was a man in need, real need. Matthew tells us there are two people demon possessed, but Mark says there is only one, so who is right? Both are, Matthew shows us the people in the area were using this poor demon possessed man to keep people away, because they were selling things they shouldn’t be, so they were as evil as the devil in the man. Jesus considers anyone who uses the things of the devil, a devil. Jesus will even call Judas a devil, so did Judas have a tail and horns? No, of course not, but Judas would end using the things of the devil for his own personal gain, and that made him wicked and like the devil.

The Jews didn’t eat pork, and chickens and pigs were used to eat the garbage, and were considered “unclean”, or something not to be eaten, or touched. The people in the area were raising pigs for food, and didn’t want anyone to find out, so Matthew shows they are just as devil minded as the man was demon possessed. Jesus breaks up the ring of pig sellers, and does so by casting the demons out of the guy. Man what power!! Guess what? If you have Jesus you have the same power. The devil is all mouth, and he has no power over a child of God, unless we give it to him. How? By doing the things he wants us to. If we know to forgive, yet we hate, we are giving power to the devil to harm us. If we know not to steal, yet we do, we are giving power to the devil to harm us. Listen to the Holy Spirit and the devil has no power over us at all, not one little, tiny bit.

Jesus then heals a crippled man, and tells the man “your sins are forgiven you”. Wow, there it is again, so can sin make us sick? We know now that is a consideration, it’s something we consider if we are sick, but not the only thing. The James who wrote the book of James tells us if we hold unforgiveness against others we can get sick, so that is one of those things where sin can make us sick. Later Peter would write, “by His stripes you were healed”, but he never said, “By His stripes you will never get sick”. Sickness can be a blessing, it can keep us from doing something we were planning on doing, but was wrong to do. Huh? Sure, we make plans to go here or there and God is telling us No, but we can’t hear, so God “allows” us to get sick to keep us from going. Perhaps we would get real hurt if we went, or get into some trouble, or something else. Also being sick is not sin, and here Jesus didn’t say, “your sin has made you sick”, He said You sins are forgiven, and the power of forgiveness brought the healing.

What if mom says, “wear your coat honey”, and we go “I don’t have time to find it”, and we go outside and catch cold. We did sin when we didn’t obey mom, but did the cold come because we sinned? Or because we didn’t wear a coat? Maybe no one said a thing, but inside we knew we should put on a coat, and we don’t. We knew to do right, and didn’t and that is wrong. We know to obey our parents, so when we don’t we are asking for it. Anyway some people get all twisted out of shape about sin and sickness, and Jesus never said, “well before I heal you, let’s figure this out, did you sin? Oh well, I can’t heal you”. No, even if they did, He healed them by “forgiving them”. The same is true with us, when we’re sick the first thing we have to do is figure out if we’re holding unforgiveness against anyone, or if it’s a sin issue. Okay, what if it is? That’s easier than taking pills, just ask Jesus to forgive us, and clean us from whatever caused us to sin. There are times when we have no idea what we are doing is sin, and then comes a sickness to show us. There are other times when we’ve done nothing wrong, and we get sick. Sickness Can be a sign, and it may not be, but never see a sick person and wonder “did they sin”. That is wrong, whether they sinned or their parents makes no difference, as Jesus will soon tell His disciples.

With this crippled man it was clear the main issue in healing him was to show all the religious leaders that Jesus as the Son of man had power to forgive sins on earth (Matt 9:6). Where else is there sin? No where, but where else is there forgiveness of sin? Oh yeah, in heaven. As the Son of man Jesus stands for all of mankind like a lawyer, but as the Son of God, Jesus stands in the place of God. Jesus was forgiving sins on earth, and He did so for us when He was on the Cross and said, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do”. Does that mean when we did sin we didn’t know it was sin? Maybe, there are times when we know, and times when we don’t. The old nature did many things we thought were right, but were really sin. Today people think if a court says they have a “right” to do something, then it’s Right to do it. That’s wrong, we have to think, “Does God say it’s right to do?”.

Jesus then does something most religious people would consider a big “no – no”. Jesus walks up to a tax collector, a guy that was taking money from the Jews, and giving it to the Romans, and tells him “Follow Me”. Why my goodness most would have rejected even the thought of hanging out with the guy, but Jesus told him, “follow Me”. The guy’s name was Matthew, and he would join the disciples and be one of the twelve. We can also see how Jesus was building the ministry by adding disciples along the way. He began with the few, and then the ministry grew and grew.

Next we get a lesson in belief, there was a man by the name of Jairus, a man who loved his daughter, yet his daughter became sick.  Jairus didn’t say, “well daughter, let’s see did you sin?”. No, his daughter was sick, and he went looking for Jesus. When he found Jesus, he “worshipped” Him saying, “My daughter is even now dead (or unto death): but come and lay Your hand on her, and she shall live”. Mark covers this from a different angle, and shows the belief of Jairus, Matthew shows the desire of Jairus. The point being we often think Worship is singing, but Jairus didn’t sing, he Trusted in the Jesus. Giving ourselves to Jesus is trust, and it’s also a type of worship. Mark shows the worship as “besought Him greatly”, which shows how worship is trusting in someone. When we worship in song we are seeking the Lord’s presence in our life, here Jairus was doing the same.

Matthew shows just how sick the daughter of Jairus was, Mark shows it was on the way to the house of Jairus that Jairus got the confirmed news, “your daughter is dead”. Jesus looked at Jairus and said, “be not afraid, only believe”. For some reason we think Belief means we shout, or yell what we believe, but here we find the war to believe is often a silent war on the inside.

Jesus used another one of those metaphors when He spoke of us as God’s people being “sheep”. He looked at the people as “sheep without a shepherd”, the people lacked guidance, they lacked knowledge, and they lacked leadership. Jesus called each of his disciples “sheep” as well, but he also said He would make them fishers of men, and He gave them the ability to become shepherds. Wow, too confusing? Not really, if we keep all these things as “metaphors”. Jesus looked at the world as a type of Sea, it was restless, appeared calm, but then would storm for no reason, would become dangerous, and violent. Jesus looked at the Jewish people as the “sand of the sea”, or that area right next to the sea, but not really sea. He looked at the Kingdom as the “earth”, giving us three areas, the world (sea), the nation of Israel (sand of the sea), and the Kingdom (earth). As Fishers of men the disciples would be above the water in a boat, they were not fish, and they were not water, they would catch the fish, showing how Jesus considered lost people like fish, they needed help to get out of the sea. When the “fish” were caught, then would come the Earth, and things would change, and the fish would change. We were all “fish” until we came to Jesus, then we became sheep. Has any fish ever turned into a sheep? No, not even the weirdest of evolution thinking would go for that. Why would this be important? It keeps us from thinking some day we will wake up as a sheep, or as a guppy in a fishbowl. If we look at fish we find some like to travel in groups, called “schools”, but some travel alone. Sheep must be kept together or they wander off, and get into trouble. Sheep gain their strength by remaining together, and obeying their shepherd.

Jesus now has twelve disciples, Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew (Levi), James the less, Thaddaeus (Lebbaeus), Simon, and Judas. He then ordains them, or gives them an office and responsibilities, and tells them to go to the Jews, and preach the Kingdom is near, and to prove it they are to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out devils. Those are things we hear about all the time, but then He added something, “freely you have received, freely you give”. The world charges for the things of God, and any of us can fall into the worse of all deceptions, the thought that since we can cast out devils, we can sell the things of God. Don’t forget among these twelve was Judas, so Judas cast out devils, he preached, he had an office, he was ordained by Jesus, he was even anointed, but he was more concerned about money, than he was Jesus. Jesus never gave us the Power, Authority, Talent or Gift so we could make money, for the love of money is the root of all evil. How do you know if you love money? If all you think about is how to get money, you love it. If you think you must have money, you love it. Money is a tool, God gives us our need, but He won’t fill our greed.

Jesus then talks about the word “confession”, and we hear preachers tell us we must Confess Jesus before men, but what does that mean? Does it mean we Say “Jesus”? No, a Confession is a manner of life, and the “word of our testimony” is what people say about us. A true Confession is how we live, do people know we trust God? Do they know there is something special inside of us? What do they say about us? “There is a nice kid, they must be Christian”, or ”what a brat”?

The disciples were all out doing the work of the ministry, going from house to house, and town to town, but Jesus remained in Capernaum.  Jesus sent them out in pairs, each with another disciple. That gave them confidence, and kept them from getting lonely, but more important we see there was a witness to the things Judas did. From this we know Judas didn’t go and sit in some cave, he was out there doing things, and experienced the power of God in his life. It’s one thing for a person who has never experienced God to deny God, another for someone who has experienced God to betray Him.

At that time John the Baptist was still in jail, and the disciples of John were wondering about this Jesus. Why was John still in jail? How could a true Christ leave the one man who really believed in Him in some jail? Why didn’t Jesus even ask John to join the ministry? Was He mad at John? A lot of people during that time thought Jesus would come and destroy Rome, give back the land to the Jews, and make them kings over the world. They had the wrong concept of being a Godly king, a Godly king serves, they do not rule over people.

The disciples of John came to John, and John sent them to Jesus, if you want to know something, go to Jesus, He always has the answers. When they got to Jesus they heard the Truth, and you will always hear Truth from Jesus. You may not like it, but it’s always truth. Jesus told them to look around, the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are clean (healed), the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the gospel is being preached, all things John didn’t do. However, does that make John less than the disciples of Jesus? No, it means John had a job to do, he knew the job, and he did it. If John would have joined the ministry of Jesus the people would always look at John, and place Jesus second place. We can never do that, not that Jesus has some big ego, but His position is far greater than that of any mortal man.

The old attitude of man is not a nice thing, we see it in the world all the time, and it can creep into our lives as well. Some of the people were looking for fault in John, if he was in jail there must be some evil in him for Jesus to allow him to remain there. Wrong, the religious rulers saw John, and how John refused to drink wine, and they called him weird. They were simply looking for evil, and refused to see the good. When we look for fault in others, it’s because we want to look better than them. In the case of God we find some want to find fault in God, so they won’t have to do as God says. No person has to do as God says anyway, but whether they do, or don’t will show where they spend forever. It’s better to do as God says, and live with Him, more important if we love God, we will do as He says. Right?

Jesus tells the disciples of John how John was a good man, he did what God told him to do, no more, and no less. Where John was on this earth didn’t mean a thing, where John would be after this earth did. John was honorable, honest, loved God, and served God well. John’s ministry didn’t call for him to heal the people, or raise the dead, he was to prepare the people to receive Jesus, and he did that well.

Many of the religious rulers were selling the things of God, and when Jesus came they didn’t like Him, since He didn’t bow before them. The people loved Jesus, because He was honest, pure and what you see, is what you get. If the people didn’t want Jesus, fine He wasn’t going to force Himself, but their Peace, Health, Love, and Salvation was in Jesus, reject Jesus, you reject all those things. Double dumb for sure.

Jesus also had other disciples, and they were called “the seventy”, since there were seventy of them (makes sense). Jesus also sent them out to preach and heal, but He didn’t call them “apostles”. Oh, what is an Apostle anyway? An Apostle is one appointed by Jesus to begin new churches in areas where there are none, and they bring us Commandments from the Lord. The 12 went out to bring the Gospel to places where it had not been preached, and in their preaching they would give the same Commandments that Jesus gave on the mount. The seventy were different, and Jesus said He was sending them like “lambs among wolves” (Luke 10:3). Yikes, sending them into the trap of death??? Nay, they were protected, since Jesus also said they were to heal the sick, and preach. Jesus didn’t tell them to cast out devils, or raise the dead, so they had a different set of rules than the twelve.

When the Seventy returned however they told Jesus they found something out, something that made them Rejoice. The told Jesus, “even the devils are subject to through Your Name” (Luke 10:17). Wow, does that mean if anyone says, “In the name of Jesus” they have power? No, it’s like saying “in the name of the Law”, the word “name” means the Authority, or the right to do something. If the man who brings the mail said, “here is your mail in the name of the Law”, we would think he was nuts. If the policeman said, “Stop in the name of the Law”, we would stop. The seventy found out they were placed in authority by Jesus, and since it was His authority they used His name to show people they were not acting on their own. Having power over devils is great, but what will Jesus say? “Behold, I will give unto power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Luke 10:19). What? What has that to do with devils? Scorpions and Serpents? What about mad dogs? Oh, we get it, those Metaphors again. Right the term Scorpions means religious people who attempt to force you out, or go about finding fault. The term Serpents means anyone who uses evil. Does this mean only the Seventy had this power? If so, what about the Twelve? What about Stephen, Philip, Paul and others who came to the Lord after the Seventy? This means anyone who falls within the Name of Jesus has that power, and that includes anyone who has made Jesus their Lord.

However, Jesus added to all this, and said, “Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the evil spirits are subject to you: but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). Ah come on, rejoice not! Oh, wait in the Name of Jesus on earth, but having our own Names written in heaven. We get it, we can have the Name of Jesus on earth, but forget about having our names written in heaven. Sure, we can’t trust in the power as our sign of having our names written in heaven, we must trust in Jesus.

Jesus then tells a Parable regarding the acts of Mercy, and how casting out devils is important, and something we’re to do, but we can’t forget we are also to grant Mercy to others. There was a man who went from Jerusalem, the center of religion to Jericho, a nothing place, but on the way he was robbed, and beat up, and left in the road. Along came a priest, but he didn’t want to be troubled with this wounded man. The priest would be one who would teach the people about the Law of Moses, and how we are to love one another, but he didn’t do as he preached. Then came someone who was in the tribe order from where the priests come, we would call him an “elder”, but like the priest he didn’t want to be troubled with this one person in the road, after all he could have some disease, or something. Then came someone from the area of Samaria, a place known as the outcast, the place where weird people hang out, but even with that sort of a reputation, the Samaritan stopped, and helped the wounded man. Both the priest and Levite were attached to the religious order, and both would have been from Jerusalem, the same place the wounded man came from. The Samaritan didn’t know the man, but the Samaritan had “compassion”, he “cared”, and gave “mercy”. He didn’t say, “well, maybe this guy deserved it”, or “maybe he is the robber, and the good guy beat him up”. No, he took the wounded man, and cared for him, and made sure he would be okay. Which of the three, the priest, the Levite, or the Samaritan had their name written in heaven?

There were those who couldn’t get to Jesus, and in that case they had “friends”. A real friend will get you to Jesus, and there was a man who was crippled, and couldn’t get out of his bed. His friends knew Jesus was in town, and teaching in a house. They picked up the man’s bed, and the man on the bed and headed off to Jesus. When they got there the house was full, so full the door was jammed, and they couldn’t get in. They knew they had to get their friend to Jesus, but how? Ahh, they got on the roof and began to rip it apart, and then when the opening was big enough they lowered the man down to Jesus. The religious people looked and found fault, but Jesus healed the man.

Like we said, some people always look for the wrong, or the fault, and they will even tell us they have found fault, but have they? The Pharisees were always trying to find something wrong with Jesus, but we know Jesus never did anything wrong. So, if they said they found something wrong did they? No, of course not. Well one day there were some people who brought a man possessed with a devil to Jesus, and Jesus cast the devil out. The people were amazed, the Pharisees got mad. The Pharisees said, “This fellow does not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of devils” (Matt 12:24). Are they crazy? Saying Jesus was working for the devil? That is got to be the dumbest thing in the world to say, but there are those who say that today. Jesus heard their words, but He answered their thoughts, and said, “If Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself, and his kingdom will fail, but if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you”. Even if the devil is casting out the devils, rejoice, his kingdom is done for. If the devils are being cast out by the Spirit of God, then rejoice for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is the Kingdom of God.

Jesus then taught them about things said, and how they were blaspheming the Holy Ghost. They were giving credit to the devil, for the things of God, that is double dumb at best. Jesus was also doing the casting out, and the Pharisees were speaking evil of Him, so we find when we speak evil of the people of God, we are in fact speaking evil of the Spirit of God. Why? The Spirit of God is in them, or guiding them. We can’t say we are in the Light, yet hate our brothers and sisters in the Lord. They may tick us off once and a while, but we can’t speak evil of them. Always take it to the Lord, and remember Jesus is King of kings, His people don’t work for us, they work for Him. To blaspheme means to speak evil of someone because we don’t like them, that is different than bringing a wrong to their attention, as long as we know the “wrong” is really a “wrong”, and not something we dreamed up.

Did Jesus run into fault? Sure, but He didn’t go around looking for it. The Pharisees were different, and in the case of Jesus when fault did jump up in His face, He always gave the person a way out. The Pharisees never did, they found what they thought was fault, and beat the person half to death with it. We will discern, or see things, but what we do then tells what type of person we are. Do we mock the person? Do we accuse them? Or do we try to help them?

How about children, how did Jesus feel about them? One day many children came to Jesus, and the disciples thought,” Oh man a bunch of kids bugging the Lord”, and they told the kids not to go away, but Jesus said, “Don’t do that, allow the children to come to Me”. Later the children came again, but instead of the disciples telling the children, they went to the parents and said, “don’t let your kids bug the Lord”, but Jesus said, “Don’t do that, allow all the children to come to Me”. Jesus said the Kingdom was the same way, it doesn’t matter if we’re supper smart, or not, we come to the Lord as little children, open, full of Love, and wanting to love. Jesus never stopped one child from coming to Him, and we’re never to stop anyone from coming to the Lord.

Know what else? We all come to the Lord the same way. It doesn’t matter if you’re supper smart in the things of the world, or not, when we come to Jesus we all start at the same place. Someone can be supper smart in the things of the world, and know nothing about Godly things. We all have the same start, the same power, and the same rules.

Having said that what about after we come to the Lord? Children grow up, and if we have little brothers and sisters we know they get away with a lot more than we do, but they don’t know as much either. As they grow and learn more things, they are held more responsible. So it is in the Kingdom, and Jesus used the “seed” to show us how all this is a matter of growing. The Seed is the Word of God, and the Word of God is really Jesus. We know, the Bible is called the Word of God too, but the Bible calls itself the “Scriptures”, and the Bible calls Jesus the Word (Jn 1:1). We don’t have a Bible planted in us when the Word is sow in our hearts, we have the Spirit of Christ implanted in us. So, in order to see this in a way that makes sense, let’s look at the ground, and how a seed grows. Let’s say we are the ground, and along comes the Holy Ghost, and He plants the Seed of God in our hearts. Then Mercy is applied, and it acts like water. How? As we forgive, God forgives, and we know forgiveness is Mercy, and Mercy makes us tender. The first thing that happens is the Root must grow. What is this like? The time when we were in our mother’s belly, we were growing to become Born, the same is true with the Word in us. When the Word is Born, so are we. When is that? When that little blade pops up, the time when we things are really different for us. The comes the growth, just like a tree, first the root, then that little bit of thing that looks like a blade of grass, then the tree, then the branches, then leaves, and so on. As we grow, the tests come from God to give us strength, just as the tree gets stronger when it grows.

Did you ever see a seed for a fruit tree grow fruit? No of course not, the seed has to be planted, it has to grow up into a tree, then it can give fruit. We’re not different, we all start the same, and we all are suppose to grow. It’s the growth thing that calls for us to work with God. We submit to God, have faith that God is always working in us, always cleaning us, always saving us. The more we grow, the more we know.

Jesus then said the Kingdom was like a net cast into the Sea, and we know what that means right? (Matt 13:47). Then He tells us something that we know is true, but something that seems strange considering the Kingdom of heaven. When the net is cast it brings in both good and bad fish, but why? How can this be? Opportunity, Jesus gives anyone who asks opportunity. Later Jesus will tell the disciples where to fish, and Jesus won’t say, “now cast the bad fish back”, or “I don’t want to see any bad fish”. No, He takes them all in and gives them all the opportunity to join Him. What evidence do we have? Judas of course, out of twelve only one fell short, so the odds are in our favor. The problem Judas had was Judas, and he just didn’t want to face his own heart. We open our hearts to the Lord, as little children, much different. As long as we want to be “caught” by Jesus, we’re okay, we will make it. How do we know? Even if we stop half way, Jesus will be there to get us the rest of the way.

What makes a bad fish? A fish that refuses to allow the change to take place, one that refuses to grow. Let’s say two fish are caught, one says, “Lord, you can change me I know it, and I want you to, and I will allow it”. The other says, “I will change myself, and I will appear more holy than the other fish, and I will make lots of money selling the things God gives me”. Which do you think is the good fish? Which the bad?

Jesus would tell us things that are so easy to understand, for instance, would you expect to find an orange on an apple tree? No, of course not, but if you saw a tree that had apples on it, what would you call it? An apple tree? Sure, but why? Because the fruit on that tree told you what kind of tree it was. People are no different, and some people are masters of hiding behind masks, but sooner or later the real them comes through, and that is their “fruit”, and that is how you know them. By what they do? No, but how they act. They can do a neat thing today, yet talk ugly about someone all the rest of the time, their fruit is “anger and bitterness”, and that is how you know them. We have a choice, we can keep the old tree of nasty and angry, or take the New one of Jesus. We have to make the decision to change trees, Jesus will not force Himself on us. That seems strange, since there are those who do force themselves on us, but Jesus is not like “them”, He is gentle, kind and waiting to help us, all we have to do is ask.

There are people out there who love to hurt others, we know it, and we may even know some. Jesus called them “tare planters”, and He explained it in a way we can understand. There was one field, it belonged to a good man, and the good man planted only good seeds, but the enemy came along and planted bad seeds in the same field. The field was not evil, but the seeds planted by the enemy were. None of the workers knew about it until the seeds began to grow, and then the workers saw the “tares”, were not “wheat”. So what is the difference? A Tare looks just like Wheat, but it doesn’t have a seed in the center. When you open a wheat, you find the “grain” or seed that is used to make cereal, bread, and other useful and good things; when you open a Tare, you find nothing. Both grew in the same Field, but only one was “good and useful”. When the workers found out the field had tares, they ran to the good man of the house and said, “Should we rip them up?”. The good man of the house said, “No, let the angels do it” (Matt 13:24-30 & 13:34-41). Tares are not good, and there are times when someone says something, or they hurt us, or we think someone has hurt us, and we accept their Tare. It grows and becomes anger, bitterness, revenge, or some other thing that is not Godly. That tare has one purpose, to keep us from God. The Holy Spirit is able to show us the Tare, and remove it. How? We ask Him and He removes it.

About half way through the earthly ministry Jesus would cross the Sea of Galilee, and a great crowd followed Him (Jn 6:1-2). This would be the Passover time, and we remember when Jesus was still in His wilderness He cleaned out the Temple on Passover, and that was just a few days after John baptized Him, and we will find Jesus went to the Cross on the next Passover, so this Passover is half-way through the ministry of Jesus. It’s important to know this is half-way, since we recall how the disciples were half-way across the Lake, when the storm came up. Jesus will face a type of a storm during His half way mark, but instead of “walking on the water”, He will deal with it in a Godly manner.

There were 5,000 men, not counting the women and children listening to Jesus teach them, and heal their sick, but it was getting close to dinner time, and the people looked like they were hungry. They were in a place where there were no stores, restaurants, or places to buy food, so how were they going to eat? Jesus looked at Philip, one of His disciples, and said, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” (Jn 6:5). Jesus asked “where”, and did so to test Philip, but why test him or anyone? To show us where our minds are at. Jesus asked “where”, but Philip ran to the money bad to see “how”. Philip thought money was the answer, and when he found they didn’t have enough money he thought it was impossible. Then Andrew, another disciple found a young boy who had five loaves of bread, and two small fish. This was the “where”, but how about the How? They seemed like so little for such a large group, but Jesus took the bread and fish, gave thanks for it, and when Jesus gives thanks, it’s always more than enough. That little amount fed all those people, and there were twelve baskets left over, one basket for each disciple.

That night Jesus told the disciples to go to the other side of the lake, and He would meet them there. They left in a boat, and in the middle of the lake a storm came up. This would be the time when they saw Jesus walking on the water, and the time when Peter would do his water walking thing. We looked at that, so we will move from there to the next day.

The people got up, and saw Jesus was gone, and they also saw the disciples boat was gone, so they left and went to the other side to find Jesus. Wow, isn’t that neat? Maybe not, let’s see (Jn 6:24-25). They found Jesus on the other side, and Jesus knew their hearts and said, “You seek Me, not because you saw the miracles, but because you did eat and were filled” (Jn 6:26). Jesus then laid it on the line, labor to do the will of the Father, and stop laboring to get the Father to do your will. What is that will? That we believe on Jesus (Jn 6:29). The people had their “tares” exposed, but instead of saying, “You’re right Jesus, forgive us, teach us to do the will of the Father”, they attacked Jesus, and attempted to manipulate Him into giving them more food. They said, “Our fathers did eat the manna, and it is written God gave them bread to eat”. So what does that mean? They were saying “What is wrong with wanting bread? God gave our fathers bread, so should You”. Jesus corrected them, and showed it was not God who gave the people the manna, it was God who gave it to Moses, for the sake of the people. Huh? Sure, the Father forgives us because Jesus asked Him to, God gave the manna to the people, because of Moses. Here these people are saying it was because of the people, but Jesus corrects them, and shows “Moses” was the reason, and beside that the manna came up from the ground, not down from heaven (Jn 6:30-32). Jesus is the Bread of God from heaven, and yet Jesus would say, “Man does not live by Bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”. What gives? Jesus will add to this and show us it’s important to come to Jesus at the Cross, but it’s also important to continue on with Jesus. Here Jesus will give us a clue to the Rock and the Church that is on that Rock. The Body of Christ is the Rock, but from the Body comes the Church. Jesus then speaks of taking His Body, and His Blood – Yikes, I don’t think I can deal with that. Easy, it’s right back to those metaphors again. The Body of Jesus is the working part, it’s all the people who come to Jesus, and accept “His Name”. The Blood of Jesus represents His sacrifice and suffering for us. Later Jesus will tell us to take of the Bread (Body), or better to remember we are one big family in God, but then He tells us to take His Blood which is the New Testament. What is a Testament? It’s a Covenant. So what is a Covenant? It’s like a contract, and we know how our parents buy cars, and things, and by them on “time”. Someone says, “look I will sell you this, and you pay me so much money a month until it’s all paid off”, then our parents say “sure, sounds good”. That is a contract, one needs, the other delivers, and they each have responsibilities. If our parents don’t pay, the man comes and takes back his goods. If our parents pay, then when the time comes the thing belongs to them, and the contract is complete and done. The Blood of Jesus is our sign of making it to heaven, Jesus did it all, so what is our part? Accept the works of Jesus, and do as He says. When we accept the works of Jesus, we are saying, “Lord you saved my life, now save me”.

Why is this coming up now? That is the issue with these people, they had “bread and fish”, and those two things represent the Body and Blood of Jesus. The Spirit of Christ is associated with the Blood of Jesus, so the people did take and eat, but they didn’t understand why. They thought it was just a hand-out, but Jesus was making a point. If they took, were they willing to give? No, they attacked Jesus, yet the very day before they took from Him. We have to be careful we don’t do the same, “Oh Lord save me, oh please”, and He does, then we say, “I’m sure lucky I was able to save myself”. Ouch, not nice. What is the storm? Having a bunch of people yelling at you is one, but we also find many of His disciples left Him over this issue. He could have said, “Hey, wait, let’s talk about it, you know I was only kidding”. But He didn’t, this issue was a call for responsibility, and the ones who stayed were the twelve, and some of the seventy.

Jesus also tells these people, “I am the Bread of Life” (Jn 6:48), and “the words that I speak are Spirit (about and from the Spirit), and they are Life” (Jn 6:63). Two things, His Body, and His Blood. If all we take is His Body, we will have Life, but we must submit to His Blood (Spirit) to gain Life More Abundantly. What is More Abundantly? Heaven, Adam had life on earth, but he was not allowed into heaven, God had to come to him, and Adam knew all about animals, and nothing about God. We have a Right by the Blood of Jesus to come before the throne of God in prayer anytime we want, and all heaven stops so God can hear our prayers. How? Jesus, but what Jesus did, we can.

When it came down to the taking the responsibility many of those same people who said, “Lord, even the devils are subject to us through Your Name” (Luke 10:17), would turn and walk away from Jesus, and walk with Him no more (Jn 6:66). When they walked away Jesus asked Peter and the other apostles, “Will you also go away?” (Jn 6:67). Peter told Jesus, “Where? You are the only one has words of life”. Peter was right, the words that Jesus spoke were Life, not death.

In this we also find another mystery, with the Old Covenant, or contract God had with the people through Moses there was both blessing and cursing. They needed some incentive, some reason to serve, and like the people who said, “where’s the bread”, they had to know God would bless them if they did as He said, but if they didn’t they would leave the door open for a cursing. Jesus never said we would be cursed, all He talked about is being Blessed, and being a Blessing. Remember the Sermon on the Mount, and all Jesus said was “blessed are you”, He never said, “And if you don’t do this, you will be cursed”. If we don’t we won’t be blessed, but all curses are nailed to the Cross of Jesus, accept the Cross and be free of all curses. Under Moses the people served based on what they could get out of it, we serve based on what Jesus did.

There are people who seek to find fault, they will pass tons of good things, just to find one little thing which they think is wrong. The religious rulers in the times of Jesus were no different, they would travel miles just to find something they felt was wrong with Jesus. Something Jesus didn’t do, they thought He should, or something Jesus did, they thought He shouldn’t. Forget all the healed people, forget all the great sermons, just find some little thing wrong. Why? People think if they can find one thing wrong, they can reject everything. Not so, if they know about Jesus, they are responsible to Jesus.

So, the Pharisees tracked Jesus down, and they saw the disciples of Jesus eating with “unwashed hands”, oh naughty, naughty disciples, so they asked Jesus, ”Why do Your disciples transgress (violate) the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread” (Matt 15:1-2). When they said “wash not their hands”, they were not talking about some soap and water, they were talking about a whole thing involving much time, and really proved nothing. To show what we mean, there was a story of a Rabbi (Jewish teacher) who was in jail, and each day he got one half of a loaf of bread, and one glass of water. To protect the “tradition of the elders” he used the water to wash his hands, before he would eat the bread. The man died of thirst, not because he didn’t have water, but because he wasted it on a tradition. The Pharisees didn’t understand the reason for the tradition, remember the metaphor thing? Water is a metaphor for Mercy, and we are to lay hands on people, so before we do, we must make sure we are Mercy covered. How? We make sure we have entered that place of forgiveness, we make the decision to forgive, God gives us the Power to forgive, and then we can lay hands on the Bread (Body) of Jesus. See how important is to know these “metaphors”? Jesus saw more than bread like you buy in the market, He saw a symbol, something that stood for much more. The Pharisees saw “dirty hands”, and missed the point. Why? They were seeking fault, not Truth, and they may have washed their hands fifty times a day, but they were not “clean” for the work of God.

A Tradition of men is something some people in the past did, and they thought it was holy, so the next generation picks it up, and they say it’s not only holy, but something we all have to do. Then people teach us we have to do it in order to be saved, and then we have a Tradition of men. A Tradition is either of men, or of God, and if it’s of God, then we do it. We take Communion because Jesus asked us to, and we are baptized in water because Jesus asked us to, so they are not Traditions of men, but Traditions of God.

The Pharisees were demanding that the disciples of Jesus do the Traditions of men, but they refused to do the Traditions of God. Jesus called them “hypocrites”, or those who go about saying, “do as I say, not as I do”. The Law of Moses had many do not things, do not eat pork, do not eat chickens, do not eat fish that don’t have scales, do not eat this, or that, but it wasn’t the food that was “evil”, rather God created all things, and all things are Good. What was it then? Obedience, God was looking for obedience, so He gave them a list of do not’s they could understand. The food was nothing, God simply used the food as a tool so the people would obey, and that allowed God to bless them.

Jesus explains how one could watch everything they eat, yet speak words full of unclean things, as He says, “It’s not goes into a person’s mouth that is unclean, it’s what comes out of it” (Matt 15:17-20). Wow, everything you say is unclean? No, since we also know we have to “confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord”. The tongue is just a thing in our mouth, Jesus is talking about what makes the tongue move. From the old attitude and nature all sorts of nasty things come forth, so we change the “tree”, and receive the Spirit of Christ to change the way our tongue acts.

Lets go to Part 2 of our New Testament Story and see what happens next!