When Jesus was on earth, He came across situations which annoyed Him. It grieved Him that there were people who were preventing ordinary people from knowing the truth. He knew He came to the earth to lay down His life to take sin, break the power of sin in an individual, and to make you clean on the inside. He came to this earth for a people, for you.
Someone sitting here needs to hear that. There’s a change that God wants to do on the inside of you. What galled Jesus when He met certain people was that they were preventing the truth coming to people. Those people who prevented others dreamt up rules and regulations for themselves. We deal with the living God, and He is the one who wants to reach an individual on this inside.
We’re going to look at an episode in Jesus’ life when He met people like this.
Isaiah 29:1-6
(Ariel – Jerusalem). When God steps in, it’s in an instant. And an amazing empire or religious structure is gone in an instant.
Isaiah 29:7-12
There was a whole morass of religious observance, rules and regulations, which the people couldn’t come to. It was as though they were told to read a sealed letter. Or else they had been told they were not learned and therefore couldn’t understand the text.
Isaiah 29:13-23
It’s iniquitous when a whole network of rules and regulations prevent ordinary people from knowing God. It’s as if there are traditions or ways of looking at things which make an ordinary person think they can’t attain – that only the selected few can be like that, only those with the inner knowledge, the higher way. God wants to make Himself known to each of us as the one who cleans up on the inside. It isn’t what happens on the outside. It’s not religious observance, nor being seen to do the right thing. God is concerned for you to be clean and open on the inside, adoring God as the one who changed you on the inside.
Mark 7:1-4
You might think it wasn’t a bad thing for the disciples to wash their hands. But here we’re talking about what the Pharisees did with the rules they created. They put themselves in the place of God. They had so many rules and regulations that people became bound up with their religion, not with God. They were supposed to be the religious leaders of the people, but they became the recipients of the people’s attention. People had to do what the Pharisees told them to do. It wasn’t a matter of the Pharisees having their own relationship with God.
Jesus points out that it’s not the rules and regulations which are important. What’s important is that Jesus Christ, who is God, wants to deal with the inside of an individual. It’s not the outside. If the inside is right, the outside will automatically be right. God is to do with the inside of a person.
It’s easy for someone to do the right things on the outside, to sing the right songs. But on the inside, where are we at? When Jesus spoke to the people and to the disciples, He was saying a revolutionary thing. The Pharisees were like gods. They knew the rules. It didn’t matter what God said. What mattered was how they interpreted the law. But woe betide anybody who has their own direct link with life.
It’s a wonderful thing that you’re here this morning, because Jesus Christ by His Holy Spirit wants to speak to you about the inside of you. He doesn’t come to condemn you. If you were honest, you’d admit you needed to sort out your inside. You’re tired of it. There’s something in you which, given the right circumstances means you go wrong. You’re not blaming the circumstances. But you know this thing is there and you want it to end.
It was a voyage of discovery for the disciples to walk with Jesus. Gradually it dawned on them that what He was saying was contrary to the religious framework of the time. From time to time they became jumpy, because they could see the reactions He was provoking.
Jesus didn’t worry, because He was all to do with individual people becoming clean on the inside to have their own relationship with God.
Why should one have a relationship with God? Without God it’s as though you dream about having a meal, but wake up hungry. Without God there is no hope in this world, and there is also a vacuum inside – something missing. God wants to become everything to you. Not just a small part, but everything to you in the inside.
Mark 7:5-6
A situation where the people had been led by the religious leaders to such an extent that they knew what to say on the outside, but their heart was far from God.
There are ten commandments in the Old Testament – the commandments of God. These people had replaced the commandments with the commandments of men. What they said was important, not what God said.
Mark 7:7-12
God commanded people to honour their father and mother, to have respect. How should one treat one’s relations? It’s coming up to Christmas. Am I going to demonstrate the love of God to my relations? Do I allow mother or father to become top priority above God? Of course not. But the command of God was to honour them. People were to provide for their parents if they were in distress in their old age. But the Pharisees said there was no need to worry. If you said the money was for God, you didn’t have to worry about the commandment. Anything committed to God was taken out of the worldly situation. Great! So there was a system they had devised which knocked out what God said. Incredible! Honour your father and mother.
Some people say all their money is God’s and they don’t have to give money to a church. Same sort of thing.
This got to Jesus, because the Pharisees had denied the people the opportunity of God coming to them on the inside and changing them. You may say the Pharisees were doing their best. No doubt some of them were sincere. But there was a shaft of light before them. There’s a way of living which changes you on the inside. Jesus changes you on the inside so that your way of living is totally opposite from the way you began on this earth.
Mark 7:13
This word should be paramount in your life. We need to get to know it inside out. By His Holy Spirit, God will speak to us through this word. This is the word on which we stand. We don’t want to make this word of none effect. It’s all about our relationship with a God of love who has given you this word as a life manual. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. There is life in this world.
God wants to become your heavenly father, to change you on the inside, to turn you around from being someone who always regrets the situation on the inside – you don’t tell anyone about it, but you know there are habits of thinking and habits of life ... If anyone is using this church as a cover for their sin, God will find things out and deal with it. God is faithful, and it’s the goodness of God which leads a man to repentance. Even this morning He is pointing things out here, saying it is important for you to be right with God on the inside.
Mark 7:14-16
The Pharisees were all to do with the outside, with following rules to satisfy them. But Jesus was saying it wasn’t the external aspect that mattered. You needed to think what was inside you, in your heart. Jesus was all to do with cleaning up what was already inside a person.
Mark 7:17-23
That’s a heavy list. But for those to whom God is speaking, it’s a list you recognise and identify with. Why is He bringing this to your attention this morning? Because when Jesus comes, when His voice speaks to you, there’s a complete difference.
John 15:1-5
Jesus is the word. He’s the word of life. He is truth. He is love. He is holy. And unlike the Pharisaical system, unlike religious observance unfounded in God, unlike the heavy burdens which man puts on you, Jesus comes to you on the inside. And on the inside, He comes to clean you up. He comes to give you His life. He comes because He knows what’s inside you. He was tempted with every sin, every bad thought, but He didn’t yield. He was sinless. And that was why when He hung on the cross, He took all your sin into Himself. He took it out of you into Him. How did He do that? He became acquainted with sin because of God’s love. He took into Himself your sin. That means you would then be able to live a life clean. That is being set free. Not the way the Pharisees said, “Devote this thing to God and you are free of the commandment.” True freedom is when Jesus comes inside, cleans you up and changes you by His Holy Spirit so you recognise what is in you and recognise that you need to be rid of it.
In God’s goodness and love, He says you need to be clean on the inside. When Jesus spoke to the Pharisees, the disciples were looking on and asked what He meant. And as they walked with Him subsequently they could see Him deal with the problems of one individual after another. He fed the five thousand, but they could see it was the individual. In fact it was you, here this morning as an individual. On the inside change can take place.
God won’t force Himself into your life. It’s not His way. But you’re hearing these words this morning for the simple reason that God loves you and wants to change you on the inside.
Showing posts with label changed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label changed. Show all posts
Sunday, 7 December 2008
Sunday, 27 July 2008
Changed on the Inside
Pastor Peter Linnecar shares from John 9, from the story of the man born blind, where we see that Jesus is interested in all our lives, and knows what we need. He is the one who seeks us out, even when we are in our darkest moment, and changes everything.
As we look at scriptures today, you’ll see that God is interested in your life, and wants to change you on the inside for the better. Sometimes when we think about God, we forget His ways aren’t our ways, and that His thoughts aren’t our thoughts. He’s good and He loves us – God is love.
Isaiah 55:8 - 11
Whenever God speaks, the word has a purpose which will be fulfilled. He never says something He regrets. He will always work out His purposes.
Mark 10:27 says things impossible with man are possible with God. He works out things in His way in His time.
Who sinned?
John 9:1 – 2
Jesus and the disciples saw the same thing but reacted differently. To the disciples, it was a blind man, and they wanted an answer as to why he was blind. Sometimes we can’t work out why certain things happen. I don’t claim to have the answer to everything. But as far as God is concerned, we may be trying to get answers to questions we shouldn’t be asking, because Jesus’ answer was completely the opposite of what they expected.
John 9:3
There are circumstances happening in your life because God wants to get your attention and reveal more of Himself than you have ever known before. He’s interested in your life. He was so interested that He came to this earth to seek and save that which was lost. He wanted to change you on the inside. The way you started off in life was wrong. We are sinners, and we know we are.
I am the light of the world
John 9:4 – 5
Jesus Himself is the light of the world, and He’s come to dispel the darkness and sin within us. The disciples couldn’t figure it out. There was a situation and something must have caused it, because things shouldn’t have been that way. But Jesus said the works of God would be manifest in the blind man.
John 9:6 – 7
It didn’t happen there and then. The clay was put on his eyes and he was told to go and wash and when he did, his eyesight was given.
John 9:8 – 12
Jesus made the clay, touched his eyes, sent him off, and while he was away, Jesus went on His way. The man returned having had his miracle, able to see for the first time in his life – and he didn’t know where Jesus was.
John 9:13 – 34
“And they cast him out.”
What a reaction. The Pharisees doubted the man who claimed that he was born blind and that Jesus had healed him. Those five words, “And they cast him out,” struck me, because our sin has shut God out. When we start off in life, we’re against God, and we do not want Him. We want to do our own thing. But we try and try, and it doesn’t work. It’s as if we’ve cast ourselves out – our sin has brought a shutter down between us and God.
Romans 5:6
At the right time God sorted things out, to break through the shutter and get hold of us. He wants to change the sin and wrong thought life with His life inside you.
This man who was given sight for the first time in his life, was asked about Jesus and was trying to work it out – He must be of God because look at what’s happened to my eyes.
When you were at your wits’ end, Jesus heard you when you prayed. God is organising things to increase that relationship with Him - He is your heavenly Father. He loves you and provides for you.
I wonder who told Jesus what had happened to the man.
John 9:35 – 38
“Lord I believe.” The reason you can say that is as a result of Jesus finding you. Through the Cross of Calvary, you were on His mind, and at that point He took in Himself your first life, your sin. It was then a case of God’s Holy Spirit speaking to you and drawing you. He’s brought you to this point in time where He says, “Do you believe on the Son of God?” What do you say?
Romans 10:8 – 10
Lord, I believe
All Jesus asked was, “Do you believe on the Son of God?” The man answered, “Who is He?” I am the one who healed you and the one who is speaking to you now. “Lord, I believe. I’ve been trying to sort things out on my own, and I’ve made a mess.”
Is it fair that some people come across this truth and others don’t? Don’t think like that. I’m talking about God in relation to you. Why did things start out as they did in Israel all those years ago? Why am I preaching like this there in England? I don’t know. But it’s how God speaks to you, how you realise that He gave His son so that you could be born again. You could be thinking, I know I need that. I try to lead a good life, and time and again I fail. There are some things I’ve given up on because I can’t overcome them. Jesus knows that, and He wants to point out you can’t do it on your own. Your sin is preventing the life you want to live. The only way to live that life is when Jesus Christ comes inside and causes you to start again with His life inside you.
This man, born blind, got his sight back and by the end of this encounter with Jesus, he could also see spiritually.
John 9:39 – 41
God loves an honest heart. I know some of you are being honest with yourselves, and realise inside right now that God is speaking to you. Respond to that voice. Say “Lord I believe. Sort me out. Change me from the inside.” And He will.
God has already made provision for what you need. He loves you and He will reveal Himself to you through His provision.
Jesus gets very personal because He loves you.
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
Holding forth the Word of Life
As Christians, we need to hold forth the word of life.
In the early church, God organised everything so that His word of life came upon a variety of people and changed them forever.
Acts 16:12 – 18
The damsel was a fortune teller and her masters were running a business through her and conning people out of money.
Acts 16:19 – 34
How did God get hold of that keeper of the prison? The keeper had carried out his job and locked Paul and Silas in prison. When the earthquake happened Paul and Silas had the opportunity to escape but they didn’t, which resulted in the keeper of the prison coming to them and asking what he must do to be saved.
God Knows What He Is Doing!
God manoeuvres things in the circumstances of mankind because He loves us. God knows what He is doing in the affairs of man. He knows what He is doing in building His church. He knew what He was doing when His son went to Calvary.
Philippians 1:1 – 7
God does what He does at the time He does it for a purpose. There is no template of how God operates. He is faithful and He is love. God has opened our hearts and our minds for that word of life to come and dwell inside us.
Philippians 2:1 – 4
These verses are very practical. The people of Philippi knew how the church had started and the miracle that happened with the earthquake. Paul wanted them to hold forth the word of life. They needed to be aware of what God had done in their midst. God builds His church in His way and in His time.
Philippians 2:5 – 8
The reason why Jesus humbled Himself, was because He knew what needed to be done in order for the church to exist. For the joy that was set before Him he endured the cross. He went through everything for you and me and forgot His own reputation. Nothing matters other than what is inside of a person.
From generation to generation God communicates His life, because He loves us. What’s the future for us and our children? Our future is to bring praise to the One who has given us life inside. Our future is to communicate to others and allow Him to share his love to others through us.
Philippians 2:9 – 11
He’s alive. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. His life is communicated to people and changes them on the inside. We are here at this time in our life, because He wants us to hold forth the word of life that He has given us.
What Is Your Foundation?
Philippians 2:12 – 13
It is God who is working in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Our standing before God does not change because of the current circumstances in our life. What is the foundation of your life? Where is your trust?
Philippians 2:12 – 15
Across the world there are people who can’t stand the Gospel and so we are to be as lights in the world, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. We are going to hold forth the word of life, and recognise what God has done in our lives.
What’s the future of your life? To allow God to work in your life and to be obedient to Him. The keeper of the prison didn’t consider that putting Paul and Silas in prison would result in His salvation. How are you going to react to a new circumstance? What’s your foundation? Where are you going? There are people who are just waiting for that time when God’s life comes to them.
Philippians 2:16
Are you going to hold forth the word of life or are you going to let a circumstance turn you about? You know the miraculous provision of God and how God’s life was communicated to you. God is organising His church in His way worldwide. He knows what He is doing.
He’s a wonderful saviour and the church is His bride. There is nothing that can prevail against it. He went to the cross, took everything in Himself and died to it, so that sin could be conquered in your life. You don’t have to live contrary to God, your life can change. There was a reason for the miracle that happened in Philippi.
God is faithful. He is true. He is all love. He forgives you and me. He has forgiven you and me. Why? Because He is building His church.
We’ve only got one life. Let’s go forward, holding forth the word of life.
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