GET CLOSE TO JESUS!
Matthew 12:22-26
22 Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and unable to speak was brought to him. He healed him, so that the man could both speak and see. 23 All the crowds were astounded and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”
24 When the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man drives out demons only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.”
25 Knowing their thoughts, he told them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is headed for destruction, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. 26 If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?
Part of the response from the people was due to their skepticism. They had certain expectations of the Messiah, the Son of David, and Jesus did not meet any of them – and yet, they knew that the Messiah would do miracles such as this – and while many prophets of old had done some miracles like the ones Jesus did, nobody had done them as often, or healed people as sick and diseased as Jesus had.
And again, while we don’t know what it was – something about THIS man and / or THIS healing, caused them to respond.
This was the turning point miracle for many.
And now this miracle, and the response of the people demanded a response from the Pharisees.
They could not ignore what they had seen, and what they had seen in the ministry of Jesus.
They could not ignore what the people had seen.
They could not ignore what the people had said.
And so, they really responded in the only way they could.
24 When the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man drives out demons only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.”
Now, it’s one thing to say that you don’t believe in Jesus.
But it’s a whole ‘nother thing to say that He is in partners with Lucifer.
But they had no choice if they weren’t going to accept Him, they could not ignore Him, and they could not deny the miracles, so they had to discredit Him.
This morning, if you are here, and you don’t know Jesus, I have a question for you – what are YOU going to do with Jesus?
What are you going to do about Jesus?
You can’t ignore Him, because not only are you faced with the reality that He existed every day – you see our time is divided into BC (Before Christ) /AD (Anno Domini = “in the year of our Lord” – or in other words, after the birth of Jesus) – so just the date puts Jesus in your face.
Even if you could ignore Him, you can’t do it forever, because one day you will stand before Him. Romans 14:11 and Philippians 2:10.
25 Knowing their thoughts, he told them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is headed for destruction, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. 26 If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?
Notice that it doesn’t say that Jesus heard what they say.
What it says is that he knew their thoughts.
This tells me that the Pharisees were not standing close to Jesus. They were on the outside looking in…they were at a distance.
Now they should have been front and center.
They should have been standing side by side with Jesus.
They should have been his biggest supporters.
They had read the Word – studied the Word – dissected the Word – memorized the Word – taught the Word.
But they did not know the Word.
They did not have faith.
All they had was sight.
Jesus did not look like the Messiah.
While He performed many miracles – they could not overlook everything else that their eyes saw.
He did not talk like the Messiah.
He did not look for loopholes in the law.
He did not dress like the Messiah.
He did not come from “Messiah” stock.
He did not hang around “Messiah” people.
They were sight walkers – sight livers.
They did not walk by faith – live by faith.
They had no faith.
They only had sight.
To follow Jesus, and believe in Jesus, we must live by faith - not sight - and to live by faith and not be sight, we must be close to Him - relation-ally - we must be near Him, not on the outside like the religious leaders were.
2 Corinthians 5:6-9
6 So we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.
· So – while we are here, in this body we are away from the Lord – in other words, physically we are not together. Our “home” is this body – and Jesus is not physically here with us.
7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.
· Paul says we walk by faith. It is definitive. We walk, or live in relationship with Jesus not because we can see Him but because we have faith in Him. Our relationship with Him is not sight driven – it is faith driven. That does not mean our faith is without sight at all – we can see the evidences of our relationship with Jesus – or at least we should be able to.
8 In fact, we are confident, and we would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
· Now Paul says we are confident – in other words we know that we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord – but wait a minute – I thought we were at home with the body? Essentially, Paul is saying we are going to move from one home to another. We are going to move from our home of faith living with Jesus – to sight living with Jesus – and we know which one we would prefer.
9 Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to him.
· What is the rule with the word “therefore”? So what is it there for? Paul is saying that regardless of where we are – at home in the body – or away from the body – or away from the body and at home with the Lord, we should live to be pleasing to Him.
· In other words – how we live in Heaven or on the New Earth, should be the model for how we are living now.
It reminds me of the song by Wayne Watson:
One day Jesus will call my name
As days go by, I hope I don't stay the same.
I wanna get so close to Him that it's no big change,
On that day that Jesus calls my name
I hope I can show you the point I’m trying to make in my mind in connecting this verse to the Pharisees.
You see – the Pharisees lived to please the Pharisees.
Because they did not have faith – they could not see Jesus, the Messiah.
They could only see Jesus the son Joseph, not Jesus the Son of God.
As I am now entering into the fifth week of revival with Jesus – I am discovering some things – things that I did not know.
The first is that revival does not so much mean that I am walking closer to the Lord (although it does mean that), as much as it means that I am finding out just how far away from the Lord I have been walking.
Just as last week I stated that we don’t believe in prayer – I did not mean that we don’t pray. Most of us pray. If nothing else, most of us pray to God for help – most of us pray to God to help us get through a crisis, or to get out of a jam – and while that is good – and thank the Lord that He hears us and helps us out of jams and walks through us through the many crisis that we have – I challenge you to read the book of Acts and see how many times prayer is mentioned in the singular compared to the corporate.
In other words, how many time do two or more believers gather for prayer, compared to individual recorded prayers?
Even the model prayer is in the plural.
So, while we believe in prayer as some sort of “pull this lever in case of emergency” we don’t really believe in “let us gather together like they did in the book of Acts and pray corporately and experience the manifest presence of God.”
I say all of that to say this – I am discovering in my fifth week of revival, that although I would say that I walk by faith and not by sight, in general I have been a sight walker, not a faith walker.
Why do I say that?
Because in the context we just read, to be faith walkers is to live to please Jesus now, just as we would in eternity!
Saints – please don’t misunderstand me – I’m not trying to down you here, or beat you up – but I’m trying to encourage you!
When I thought of this I realized how different my life would be if I were more of a faith walker than a sight walker.
Financially, I would give more! Do we really think that in eternity we would even have a debate over what to give Jesus?
Witnessing, I would be bolder! Do we really think that in eternity we will not overflowing with excitement to share our story of meeting Jesus? To share what He has done in our lives? Do you really think we will use any of the excuses we use now NOT to talk about Jesus there?
And speaking of sharing things…
Reading the Word would come alive! Do we really think that in eternity we would not want to read the Word, or make time to read the Word? Do we really think we would not want to share with one another what we have read?
Gathering to worship will be a priority! While I do believe that worship will be different in eternity – both personal and corporate worship – can you imagine on the New Earth Jesus saying that He wants to gather with all those living ____________________ (fill in the blank to represent your location) and we decide to stay away because we would rather do something else?
Do you see what I’m trying to say?
And again, don’t misunderstand me…I know we live in these feeble bodies that get sick, get older, hurt more, ache more and get tired – and that in eternity those things will be no more – but let’s be honest with ourselves and at least admit that there are times when we do things we want to do – no matter how we are feeling – in other words there are excuses we use to not give, not share Jesus, not read the Word and not gather for worship, that we do not use when we want to do other things.
I want to encourage you to live today as though you were already there!
Live to please Him here just as you would there!
That is what Paul has instructed us to by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
And that is what the Pharisees could not do because they did not know Him.
But we, we say we know Him – we say He is our Messiah, our Master, our Savior, our Lord – so let’s live like we know Him!
Let’s live like we believe it!
Let’s live by faith now, the same way we will live by sight then!
Oh, remember when you used to be passionate for Jesus! When you couldn’t wait to read His Word?
When you told everyone about Him?
When you not only lived with anticipation for the next time you gathered with the saints to worship – but when you got there, you didn’t want to go home?
Remember when you wept and cried over the lost?
Remember when you shouted and praised His name in a worship service – during singing, or preaching or praying?
Remember when you got out of the boat?
Matthew 14:24-29
24 Meanwhile, the boat was already some distance from land, battered by the waves, because the wind was against them. 25 Jesus came toward them walking on the sea very early in the morning. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost!” they said, and they cried out in fear.
27 Immediately Jesus spoke to them. “Have courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter answered him, “command me to come to you on the water.”
29 He said, “Come.”
And climbing out of the boat, Peter started walking on the water and came toward Jesus.
We knock Peter because of what comes after verse 29 – but Peter should be celebrated more for what takes place in verse 29 than he should be for what takes place after verse 29.
Because the brother got out of the boat.
He was in the thick of a storm on the sea.
They were a long way from land – the boat was battered – the word means “tortured” and the wind was against them – it means it was antagonistic!
They were afraid – they were afraid of dying.
And yet, in the middle of the storm, where sight tells you to stay in the boat, Peter got out.
Not only that – He got out on faith, not sight – it doesn’t seem he could get a clear view of Jesus – sight says stay in the boat – only faith living can get you out of the boat to walk on water in the middle of a storm!
The brother got out of the boat.
The choice is ours – do we want to say we live by faith, and yet in reality we stay in the comfort and safety of the boat – or do we want to share in the radical experience of walking on the water with Jesus?
I want to share something with you that I read this week, it is from Pastor Ken Hutcherson: “If you’ve got enough faith to get you here – you’ve got enough faith to get you there!”
“Here is where you are right now, if by faith you have received God’s free gift of salvation by accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. If you’re really here, then you have been snatched from the kingdom of darkness and places securely forever in the kingdom of light. Here means you have been released from the chains of Satan and his army of evil angels, youv'e been given eternal life, and you have been adopted as a beloved son or daughter into God’s intimate family circle.”
That’s here.
And here is amazing.
But if we want to walk closely with Jesus, we must go there. We cannot stay here. God is on the move – and He calls us to come and join Him.
I believe that Peter did not have any more faith than the other disciples.
What I do believe is that Peter walked in the faith that he had, while the others sat in the faith that they had.
What I do believe is that Peter wanted to be with Jesus, close to Jesus, no matter how scary it looked or how impossible it seemed.
Pastor Hutcherson again: “You don’t lose faith, you lose the will to walk in your faith.”
“If He was strong enough to bring you here, He’s got strength to spare to get you there!
Regardless of what we say – our life will show that we will either live out the reality that there is more safety, more thrills, more excitement being with Jesus in the storm, than there could ever be in the boat – or it will show that like the Pharisees, we know Him, we see Him, but we do not follow Him by faith.
I want to encourage you who are reading this, to live life from your close proximity to Jesus – not like the Pharisees who should have been close to Him, but instead were far enough away to see Him – to see what He could do – and yet still be living outside of Him.
I want to encourage you to step out of the boat, and get close to Jesus.
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