In Chapter 7 Jesus concludes his powerful sermon on the
mount of olives. It says and the very last verse of this chapter something very
profound. And verse 28 the crowds who heard him were amazed and astonished at
his teaching, “for he taught as one who had real authority - quite unlike the
teachers of religious law.”
As we begin Chapter 7, one of the first principles that
Jesus taught is today so often misused! Jesus spoke about judging others. He
told the crowd that they needed to stop judging others or they would be judged
by the same measure. Jesus said in verse 2, “Whatever measure you use in
judging others, it will be used to measure how you are judged.” So, what was
Jesus really telling them? He was basically telling them two things: 1. That
God will use the same method of judging you based on how you judge others. 2.
That other people will judge you based on how you judge others as well.
Jesus then began to give them some very good reasoning as to
why it's so dangerous to be judgmental. He tells them frankly, and “why worry
about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own?” So often we are quick to judge others for
their actions without really looking at or even within ourselves and asking the
all-important question, “Do I have a problem doing the same thing?”
The Promise of Asking and Receiving
The next important subject matter that Jesus addresses with
the crowd is about the importance of asking and receiving from the Lord. Jesus
commands us to ask! It's a command that we should follow. God tells us in the
book of James that we have not because we don't ask for things. Jesus is
encouraging us that when we pray that we should ask of things from the Lord.
And with that asking there comes a powerful promise! Jesus said that when we
ask in faith, we shall receive what we ask for from the Lord.
Now I know that not everything you've ever prayed for or
that I've ever prayed for has been granted by God. However, I will say, that
many things I have prayed for and ask God for have come about, and in many circumstances,
it was immediate or quickly. You see God wants to give us the desires of our
heart, however because God sees our future and knows our circumstances far
better than ourselves there are many times when he will delay or simply refuse to
do what we ask for. In fact, this is a great subject matter for another time!
God often answers our prayers exactly how we have asked but there are timing
issues that keep things delayed or perhaps God does not see it as a benefit to
us like we think it would be.
When my kids were little, they often asked for candy while
in the checkout aisle. As a parent, you know exactly what I’m talking about!
The candy and the checkout aisle is a parent’s nightmare. Kids like candy and
who can blame them from asking for it. But what do we do as parents? Sometimes,
will buy them the candy that they've chosen. At other times, we simply refuse
because we have good reasons for them not having their candy. And despite all
your explanations as to why they shouldn't have the candy they still get mad.
But as parents, we love our children so much that we try to act in a way that
brings benefit to them, not harm. God is our heavenly father, and he does the
same thing to his children!
Who’s Going To Heaven and Who’s NOT?
The last few verses of Chapter 7 are powerful! Jesus
describes exactly who will be able to obtain heaven and who won't make it there.
The scary thing is that Jesus describes how many religious leaders we'll never
make it to heaven! He tells them - the religious leaders - that in spite of
their prophesying, and their miracle working services, and their ability to
cast out demons, these aren't in and of themselves reasons why they would earn
heaven. In fact, there is no religious thing we can do to earn heaven! Jesus
made it very clear and plain as to who well actually go to heaven. He says in
verse 21, “Not all people who sound religious are really godly they may
refer to me as Lord, but they still won't enter the Kingdom of heaven. The
decisive issue is whether they obey my father and heaven.”
Heaven is exclusively for those who obey God and follow his
commandments and do his will! The religious leaders of Jesus day did a lot of
religious work. They prayed throughout the day all week long, they always
carried scripture with them, they went to the synagogue daily, they would
preach to the crowds about God, and exercised all the religious trappings that
many people in our churches today do. Jesus is trying to explain that gaining
heaven is not about doing, it is about being! God does not need people to do
things for him because he can accomplish whatever he wants to accomplish
without us. What God wants from us is a relationship, not religious activity. While
serving the Lord both in and outside of church is very important, it must be
borne out of a desire to serve the Lord, to live for him, to follow his
commands, and to bear much spiritual fruit for his glory! Remember what God
said in the Old Testament to king Saul? He said that, “Obedience Is better than
sacrifice.” In other words, being obedient is far more important to God than to
commit yourself to some kind of religious activity. Before you commit yourself
to some type of ministry or religious activity, the question you ought to be
asking yourself is, “Is my heart right with God and do I live a life of
obedience?
Within chapter 8 and 9 we see about 11 miracles that Jesus
performs in the early part of his ministry. The purpose of these miracles was
to prove to the crowds and to us today that Jesus is in fact the son of God!
Let's look at a few of the miracles:
The very first miracle that we see in chapter 8 is the
healing of a leprous person. Lepers were to be avoided at all costs! To be
near a leper or a leper colony would cause you to become unclean according to
the mosaic law. So, people stayed away from leprous people. But Jesus didn't
care! He trusted his heavenly father! And reaches out and heels a leper from
his disease.
The next miracle was to take and completely heal a
paralyzed man! He was paralyzed and wracked with pain. What is so
interesting about this miracle is that it's the servant of a Roman centurion.
The Jews wanted nothing to do with the Romans and many religious leaders could
not believe that Jesus would heal or exercise any favors on behalf of the
Romans. But Jesus came for all men! In fact, jesus was amazed at this Roman centurion’s
faith in him! He had not found such profound faith and all of Israel. The Roman
centurion believed in Jesus so much that he did not require Jesus to come to
his house to heal the paralyzed servant but rather to speak and he knew that it
would be done instantaneously. And that's exactly what happened!
The next miracle was Jesus’ healing Peters mother-in-law
of a high fever.
Shortly after healing peter's mother-in-law, Jesus healed
many people who were demon possessed! Demon possession seems like it's so
common in Jesus’ day when you read the Bible, however I believe there is more
demonic activity today than perhaps in the day of Jesus because we are
approaching the end times. The reason we see so much demonic activity within
the scriptures especially in the gospels yes because the demons were truly
afraid of Jesus! They knew he created them. And they were worried that he would
cast them into the furnace of fire before their time. This was obviously a very
scary thing for demons. After all, who wants to end up in a furnace of fire
earlier than expected?
The 5th miracle was when Jesus calmed the mighty storm on
the sea of Galilee. Jesus and the disciples were crossing the sea, but
Jesus was asleep in the boat. The storm acted like a hurricane and the
experienced fisherman like Peter, Andrew, James, and John thought they were all
going to die because they had never been in a storm like that! They woke up
Jesus to inform him. However, Jesus knew this would be a critical learning
experience identifying exactly who he was - which is the son of God!
If you've got storms in your life, Jesus wants to calm those
storms and assure you that you just need a little bit of faith in him, and He’ll
take care of it.
The next miracle that happens at the end of chapter 8 is
also about two men who were mightily possessed by demons. These two
demon possessed men we're so powerful and so maniacal that people everywhere
would avoid the cemetery where they resided. However, sense of Jesus is God and
was the creator of the angels who had fallen (now called demons), the demons
became horrifically frightened by the presence of Jesus. They, knowing the
mercy of God, consequently asked Jesus to cast them into nearby herd of pigs which
eventually ran down a steep cliff and were drowned into the sea. What is so strange about this story is that
the people of the nearby towns were more frightened of Jesus power than the
demonically possessed men. So much so, that they begged Jesus and his disciples
to leave the area and never come back. Can you believe that?
The next miracle begins in Chapter 9 about another
paralyzed man. This miracle got Jesus into trouble with the religious
leaders of his day. This man was paralyzed due to a sinful life. Jesus spoke to
the man and said, “Your sins are forgiven.” The religious leaders thought Jesus
had committed the worst sin of all, that of blasphemy. They believed only God
could have the power or holy right to forgive sins. However, Jesus is God, but
they didn’t know it. They just could not get that through their thick skull.
Not only was the man healed instantaneously, but the religious leaders could
not explain how the man could be healed by a blasphemer. It was these sorts of
things that became ripple effect that led to Jesus eventually being crucified
on a cruel cross a few years later.
The next miracle was the greatest miracle of all! After all,
Jesus healed a dead person. A girl had fallen sick and eventually died.
Many people were there to mourn the loss of this little girl. They knew she was
dead. In fact, when Jesus began to enter the room to heal the little girl, the
crowd mocked him! One can only imagine the shock on their faces when she walked
out of the room hand in hand with Jesus! There is nothing impossible with God!
He gives us life. He is the life giver. And despite somebody being dead
physically, Jesus conquered death by dying on the cross and becoming our
perfect sacrifice for our sins. While he was sinless, he died for those of us
who are sinful to wash away our sins and make us righteous in God's eyes.
The next miracle was unusual. An obscure woman lying on the
ground simply believed that if she could touch the hem of Jesus' garment that
she could be healed. And it worked! Jesus felt healing power going out of his
body. In another book of the Bible this story is told where Jesus mentions that
someone was just healed without his knowledge. When he finally looked down, he
noticed it was a woman who had a hemorrhage of blood for many, many years.
The miracles keep on coming! As we finish out chapter 9,
Jesus heals two blind men and another individual who is possessed by a demon.
If you need healing, Jesus can heal you! But it's up to your
faith to believe in him and trust him for healing. Cry out to him today and let
him heal you! No matter the situation or the circumstance, Jesus can heal it.
Whether he heals it instantly or heals it later, he still wants us to cry out
to him for healing.
What do you need Jesus to do for you today?
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