WHEN JESUS REVEALS HIMSELF Mark 2:6-12
INTRO:
Behavior and belief - If you don’t live it, you don’t believe it.
Steven Manley: “A holy person ought to be like a suit that would unzip and all that you see is Jesus.”
Is it very clear to others that Jesus is with us? Do our actions allow Christ to reveal Himself to others?
How will people see Jesus in each of us?
I. THERE WILL BE RECOGNITION
A. Jesus has made a God statement: “Your sins are forgiven.”
B. In this case there was a negative reaction: “who does he think he is? God?
Usually Jesus presence will ruffle some feathers. It will make them uncomfortable
C. Jesus has come to live within us. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. John 14:20
D. If Christ is in us, shouldn’t we think and act differently?
Shouldn’t the people see Christ and His kingdom in us?
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD. Isa. 55:8
E. Look at what God does through people:
• Virgin Mary – pregnant
• Abraham – old – parent
• Moses – grew up in Egypt – then led his people out
• Noah – built ark on dry land – no rain
• Gideon – defeated Midianites with only 300 men
• Peter – from denying Christ to preaching the first sermon
• Paul – from executioner to apostle
F. Henry Blackaby: “When God’s people and the world see something only God can do, they come to know God. Let people see the difference that a living Christ makes in a life, a family, or a church; that will make a difference in how they respond to the gospel.”
G. Are people recognizing God in our lives?
II. THERE WILL BE A REACTION
A. When people notice our lives in Christ, how do we react to them?
B. Jesus knew their hearts and the popular thought of the day was on that said, “you are sick because of sin.”
C. So His response was one that did not argue, but proved His Sonship!
D. Do we live our faith and prove our relationship to Christ, or do we let the opportunity slip by?
Henry Blackaby: “What I do reveals what I believe about God, regardless of what I say. What I believe about God will determine what I do and live.”
E. Are we are fearful when it comes to defending our faith with others?
* David was led to fight Goliath. 1 Sam 17
What did he believe about God?
* He could do anything
* He helped slay the lion and the bear
* He will slay you, Goliath through me
* What did David do?
* took his sling and five stones against Goliath with a huge sword and spear
* hit Goliath in the forehead and killed him
* cut of Goliath’s head with his own sword
F. Sometimes we will stand alone:
Challenger
In the fateful winter morning of January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger stood poised for launch. Overnight, the temperature had plummeted into the twenties. At liftoff it was a crisp 36 degrees F. Four-foot icicles still clung ominously to the launch tower.
Allan McDonald, an engineer employed by the manufacturer of the solid rocket boosters that straddled the shuttle, shuddered, but not because of the cold. Research had shown that the O rings sealing the sections of each booster might be more likely to leak as the temperature dropped. In fact, the rings had never been tested during an actual launch below 51 degrees F.
McDonald stood virtually alone as he steadfastly opposed the launch that icy morning, but he was overruled. The launch went ahead as scheduled, and 73 seconds later six brave astronauts and one enthusiastic school teacher lost their lives when the O rings failed.
Was Allan McDonald arrogant when he challenged the decision to launch? Was he intolerant? Any thinking person would say no. He just was unwilling to see innocent people die because others had ignored or distorted the facts. We would say Allan McDonald knew the truth, and he stood up for it.
Mike Bellah, “Truth and Tragedy,” (Garland, TX: American Tract Society), 1992
G. When we are faced with a time of obedience what will our reaction be?
III. THERE WILL BE A RESPONSE
A. The response will be varied.
* REJECTION
The scribes probably felt attacked. Probably were angered.
On writer: “That day, Jesus signed His ‘death warrant’. They would be soon plotting with others ‘how they might destroy him’ (3:6)”
*AMAZEMENT
The people had never seen anything like this.
Many are still amazed, yet unchanged.
We hear the matchless truth over and over and have a decision to make. Will I be obedient to the truth? Will I display His grace?
*SALVATION
Paralytic went home healed and saved.
We can be healed of the sin and bondage we are under and cleansed with the blood of Jesus.
B. Confronted with Jesus there will always be a response.
We need to allow Jesus to reveal himself through us.
It will bring about a response from those around us!
CONCLUSION:
Teen Pregnancy
When you’re raised in the country, hunting is just a natural part of growing up. For years I enjoyed packing up my guns and some food to head off into the woods. Even more than the hunting itself, I enjoyed the way these trips always seemed to deepen my relationship with friends as we hunted during the day and talked late into the night around the campfire. When an old friend recently invited me to relive some of those days, I couldn’t pass up the chance.
For several weeks before the trip, I had taken the time to upgrade some of my equipment and sight in my rifle. When the day came, I was ready for the hunt. What I wasn’t ready for was what my close friend, Tom, shared with me the first night out on the trail.
I always enjoyed the time I spent with Tom. He had become a leader in his church and his warm and friendly manner had also taken him many steps along the path of business success. He had a lovely wife, and while I knew they had driven over some rocky roads in their marriage, things now seemed to be stable and growing. Tom’s kids, two daughters and a son, were struggling in junior high and high school with the normal problems of peer pressure and acceptance.
As we rode back into the mountains, I could tell that something big was eating away at Tom’s heart. His normal effervescent style was shrouded by an overwhelming inner hurt. Normally, Tom would attack problems with the same determination that had made him a success in business. Now, I saw him wrestling with something that seemed to have knocked him to the mat for the count.
Silence has a way of speaking for itself. All day and on into the evening, Tom let his lack of words shout out his inner restlessness. Finally, around the first night’s campfire, he opened up. The scenario Tom painted was annoyingly familiar. I’d heard it many times before in many other people’s lives. But the details seemed such a contract to the life that Tom and his wife lived and the beliefs they embraced. His oldest daughter had become attached to a boy at school. Shortly after they started going together, they became sexually involved. Within two months, she was pregnant. Tom’s wife discovered the truth when a packet from Planned Parenthood came in the mail addressed to her daughter. When confronted with it, the girl admitted she had requested it when she went to the clinic to find out if she was pregnant.
If we totaled up the number of girls who have gotten pregnant out of wedlock during the past two hundred years of our nation’s history, the total would be in the millions. Countless parents through the years have faced the devastating news. Being a member of such a large fraternity of history, however, does not soften the severity of the blow to your heart when you discover it’s your daughter.
Tom shared the humiliation he experienced when he realized that all of his teaching and example had been ignored. Years of spiritual training had been thrust aside. His stomach churned as he relived the emotional agony of knowing that the little girl he and his wife loved so much had made a choice that had permanently scarred her heart.
I’m frequently confronted with these problems in my ministry and have found that dwelling on the promiscuous act only makes matters worse. I worship a God of forgiveness and solutions, and at that moment in our conversation I was anxious to turn toward hope and healing.
I asked Tom what they had decided to do. Would they keep the baby, or put it up for adoption?
That’s when he delivered the blow. With the fire burning low, Tom paused for a long time before answering. And even when he spoke he wouldn’t look me in the eye.
“We considered the alternatives, Tim. Weighed all the options.” He took a deep breath. “We finally made an appointment with the abortion clinic. I took her down there myself.”
I dropped the stick I’d been poking the coals with and stared at Tom. Except for the wind in the trees and the snapping of our fire it was quiet for a long time. I couldn’t believe this was the same man who for years had been so outspoken against abortion. He and his wife had even volunteered at a crisis pregnancy center in his city.
Heartsick, I pressed him about the decision. Tom then made a statement that captured the essence of his problem…and the problem many others have in entering into genuine rest. In a mechanical voice, he said “I know what I believe, Tim, but that’s different than what I had to do. I had to make a decision that had the least amount of consequences for the people involved.”
Just by the way he said it, I could tell my friend had rehearsed these lines over and over in his mind. And by the look in his eyes and the emptiness in his voice, I could tell his words sounded as hollow to him as they did to me.
Little House on the Freeway, Tim Kimmel, pp. 67-70.
