change…

and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” All who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?” Saul became increasingly more powerful and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah. After some time had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night so that they might kill him; but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket. When he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples; and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him, brought him to the apostles, and described for them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went in and out among them in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. He spoke and argued with the Hellenists; but they were attempting to kill him. When the believers learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus. Meanwhile the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was built up. Living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers. (Acts 9:20-31, NRSV)

Can a person really change?

That is what the Jews were asking and the disciples… Saul is just trying to tellus he has changed. He is tricking us by claiming Jesus is the Messiah…

But when God changes a person, that person is changed. And there is the kicker, it is God who does the change, not the person.

But when God encountered Saul, he was so different, that He had to change his name. God changed Saul to Paul, and set him on a course to set the world on fire with the love of Christ.

What will God do through you if you will let Him change you?

can you imagine…

Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many. Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!” (Matthew 27:50-54, NRSV)

Can you imagine being the one who stood by His cross, pierced His side, and watched Him die?

Can you imagine having no faith in Him, but then understanding everything to be true, and beleiving?

Actually that is what happened to all of us.

Even if we were raised in a home that taught us the faith, we still at some point heard the words spoken, and the promises that were given and we believed, and made a confession, “Truly this man is the Son of God!”

And we were the ones who pierced His side, and hung Him on the cross, yet He still made those promises for us!

So imagine Him loveing you, because He does, and now go and confess Him to the world.

if

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” (john 11:17-27, NRSV)

If you had been here…

I know he will rise again…

Yes Lord I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God…

All of the statements at the end are cancelled by the statement, “If you had been here…”

If we really believe in the resurrection, and if we truly believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, then there is no if you had been here. There is the here and now, and the fact that He is always with us, even when we do not feel Him, or see Him, or know He is there.

Jesus waited 4 days, because in 3 days Lazarus could have waken up, and for the sake of the disciples He wanted them to see the true power, and sometimes we need that as well, but knowing the stories we do, we shoudl wipe if away, and always go with since…

Since I know Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, I will trust and follow and know that He will always provide and care for me!

follow me…

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” (John 1:43-49, NRSV)

Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

Truly you are the Son of God!

When we encounter Jesus, the Son of God we will know it.

And when we are calm and follow Him our lives will be filled with wonders we won’t be able to imagine.

So know that He knows you and still loves you and asks for you to follow Him.

on this rock

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. (Matthew 16:13-20, NRSV)

Here is where the Keys to the Kingdom are given to Peter. And upon Peter the church is built…

Or did Jesus mean something different…

Not to downplay Peter and his role in the early church, but was he the center or did Jesus mean something different by “upon this rock I will build my church.”

You see Caearea Philippi was the home of a temple or worship space for Baal, and a worship center for Pan the Greek god and for Ceasar…

It was a pagan worship haven. It was the center of the world and as far from God as one could get where Jesus was.

So maybe Jesus was saying, “Peter right here upon this rock where the pagan god’s seem to control the world, we are going to build the church. Upon your confession of who I am and helping people see who they realy should be worshiping…”

So on this rock, on the place where you think God is farthest from, that is the place He wants you to place Him and to allow Him to be the center of all!

Worship Him and Him alone and allow His life to be yours!

Praise!

On the holy mount stands the city he founded; the LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon; Philistia too, and Tyre, with Ethiopia— “This one was born there,” they say. And of Zion it shall be said, “This one and that one were born in it”; for the Most High himself will establish it. The LORD records, as he registers the peoples, “This one was born there.” Singers and dancers alike say, “All my springs are in you.” (Psalm 87, NRSV)

All sing my praises in you!

The Lord will sing the praises of His creation and out of that creation will come those who are His. And when they are seen everyone will sing their praises!

So sing to God praises for His creation! For you!

And allow Him to work through you!

take away their sins

So that you may not claim to be wiser than you are, brothers and sisters, I want you to understand this mystery: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved; as it is written, “Out of Zion will come the Deliverer; he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.” “And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.” (Romans 11:25-27, NRSV)

Israel is God’s chosen people…

But God also loves the Gentiles…

Out of Zion will come the deliverer who will banish the ungodliness from the world and will take away the sins of the people!

God will cleanse us Gentile and Jew. He will make us His people and we will be with Him forever!

This is the will of God, and it is perfect!

God’s plan will happen in His time, and we do not know when, but we can rest in the assurance that He will take our sins away!

our way or God’s way

Then certain individuals came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to discuss this question with the apostles and the elders. So they were sent on their way by the church, and as they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, they reported the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the believers. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and said, “It is necessary for them to be circumcised and ordered to keep the law of Moses.” The apostles and the elders met together to consider this matter. After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “My brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that I should be the one through whom the Gentiles would hear the message of the good news and become believers. And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us; and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us. Now therefore why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” The whole assembly kept silence, and listened to Barnabas and Paul as they told of all the signs and wonders that God had done through them among the Gentiles. After they finished speaking, James replied, “My brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first looked favorably on the Gentiles, to take from among them a people for his name. This agrees with the words of the prophets, as it is written, ‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the dwelling of David, which has fallen; from its ruins I will rebuild it, and I will set it up, so that all other peoples may seek the Lord—even all the Gentiles over whom my name has been called. Thus says the Lord, who has been making these things known from long ago.’ Therefore I have reached the decision that we should not trouble those Gentiles who are turning to God, but we should write to them to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from whatever has been strangled and from blood. For in every city, for generations past, Moses has had those who proclaim him, for he has been read aloud every sabbath in the synagogues.” (Acts 15:1-21, NRSV)

Notice here that some of the followers of the way were putting what they had been taught into the mix of what had to happen for new comers to be a part.

The Gentiles were different and didn’t faollow the Jewish customs, so the Jews that became followers of the way thought that the Gentiles needed to do the Jewish stuff too to be followers of Jesus.

But God showed them that His way is not the ways they had followed or knew or hoped that everyone else would do.

So don’t put God in a box and allow His way to be your way!

a drop in the…

But Jews came there from Antioch and Iconium and won over the crowds. Then they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples surrounded him, he got up and went into the city. The next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.  After they had proclaimed the good news to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, then on to Iconium and Antioch. There they strengthened the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue in the faith, saying, “It is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God.” And after they had appointed elders for them in each church, with prayer and fasting they entrusted them to the Lord in whom they had come to believe. Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. When they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia. From there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had completed. When they arrived, they called the church together and related all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith for the Gentiles. And they stayed there with the disciples for some time. (Acts 14:19-28, NRSV)

The disciples here were going to any where they could to tell of the story to any one who would listen.

They faced pursecutions and hard trials, but they shared the love that God gave to them.

They prayed and fasted and told all of the love of Jesus who died for all of us.

They went and shared! And that is what we are to do. You sharing in your space where you were planted may seem like a drop in the ocean, but with out that drop the ocean isn’t complete!

healing

When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him; and there was a leper who came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I do choose. Be made clean!” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Then Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, appealing to him and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible distress.” And he said to him, “I will come and cure him.” The centurion answered, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and the slave does it.” When Jesus heard him, he was amazed and said to those who followed him, “Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you according to your faith.” And the servant was healed in that hour. (Matthew 8:1-13, NRSV)

“If you choose you can make me clean!”

Have you ever said that to Jesus?

Sure most of us aren’t lepers, but we all have something that we need to be cleaned of. Healed from…

And then do you have the faith of the centurion? To say let it be done and it is done?

If you are a parent this might be hard. You tell your kid to clean their room, and they say it is done. But is it?

We hear all the time people telling us they did something, when they didn’t do it, or didn’t complete it.

We are left empty and wanting.

Yet this man knows when it is said it is done. And what if we had that kind of faith?

We put things into God’s hand, and let Him handle it. We then are free to love and share what He has given us. That my friends is true healing!

So be the centurion! and trust Jesus has all in His hands!