Listen to our Liberty Podcast “Rejection”
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Big Jesus wins award for the ‘Best Community Entry’ in the parade.
We had a unique perspective on Jesus, His fame and renown. If the crowds were silenced even the stones would have cried out to Him.
This must be what it was like for Jesus to enter Jerusalem, re-enacted for the benefit of his LGBT people…What does this say for us and for Him?
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Minna Canth: Christianity has been buried inside the walls of churches and secured with the shackles of dogmatism.
Let it be liberated to come into the midst of us and teach us freedom, equality and love.
Athanasius: “True freedom is found when the soul is bound to Christ alone.”
Gregory of Nyssa: “Where the Spirit dwells, freedom rises; no earthly master can rule the liberated heart.”
John Calvin: “Freedom in Christ is freedom from fear, for the conscience rests in His righteousness.”
John Owen: “Gospel liberty is the soul’s release from the dungeon of guilt and the chains of sin.”
Extracts from Jim’s Preach ‘Don’t Go Back’
They arrived at Bethsaida. Some people brought a sightless man and begged Jesus to give him a healing touch.
Taking him by the hand, he led him out of the town. He put spit in the man’s eyes, laid hands on him, and asked, “Do you see anything?”
He looked up. “I see men. They look like walking trees.”
So Jesus laid hands on his eyes again. The man looked hard and realized that he had 20/20 vision. Jesus sent him away, saying, ‘Do not go into the town.’ Mark 8:22-26
In scripture Miracles were called signs. They were sign posts to a spiritual truth. Often week the disciples didn’t understand some of the things that Jesus was doing and saying.
The complexity of scripture and our frequent lack of understanding is like God saying to us ‘You can’t fully understand and I don’t want you to rely on your understanding of the bible.
I want you to totally rely upon Jesus.’
We became a Christians because we came to know and put our trust in Jesus. We need to continue doing that. Jesus said ‘... remain in Me’ and ‘ apart from me you can do nothing’ (nothing of spiritual value). We must remember that.
In the story above, after Jesus healed the blind man, he told him ‘don’t go back into town..’
The story started with Jesus meeting a blind man in Bethsaida but led him by the hand out of the town to heal him, then told him not to go back into that town.
What had Jesus got against Bethsaida?
Jesus had previously spent a lot of time in Bethsaida and blessed the people’s socks off by performing lots miracles there. Despite this people of the town still didn’t recognise that Jesus was the promised Messiah and they rejected Him.
Bethsaida was a place of unbelief and rejection so in the spiritual sense all of its inhabitants were blind. Jesus led the man, who was also physically blind, out of the town to heal him. Jesus led him outside the place of unbelief then warned ‘Don’t go back.’
Bethsaida means ‘house of fish’. Fish are symbolic of Christians so ‘the house of fish’ can be seen as representing many Christians together. In this case Christians who are unbelieving, knowing Jesus but unable to totally to rely on Him.
I believe today’s message is for those who have been led out of the darkness of unbelief, or of rejection, or of tolerance without full acceptance. Don’t go back.
There are plenty of scriptural examples and warnings of not going back and even not even looking back like Lot’s wife. The Israelites are brought out of slavery in Egypt but instead of looking forward to what God had for them they wanted to go back to what was familiar to them. Scripture lists them wanting the foods of Egypt; cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. All foods that were back breaking to collect because they all grew on the ground
The foods they looked back to were gained by hard work but the fruit God had for them in the Promised Land was free for the taking. The fruit was grapes from vines they had not planted and fruit from trees they had not grown. With no effort they could just take the fruit at will.
The story set in Bethsaida is a warning. Don’t go back to any place of rejection or unbelief where you have to work for your spiritual food. Celebrate that Jesus has brought you out for the purpose of taking you into something far better. It may take time for you to realise that works or effort in any form are not necessary in the kingdom of God.
The fruit of the vine that is from Jesus and the fruit of the Holy Spirit are truly free
Although the Israelites didn’t go back into Egypt they often harked back and held on to the past and the mindset they had developed in Egypt. Egypt was a place where gods were visible so they soon fashioned a symbol of God according to their limited understanding. They made a golden calf. They easily slipped back into the familiar and started to worship their symbol.
Learn from the golden calf. What may seem likea symbol to you may be an idol that gets in the way of you relating to God.
Symbols are man made. Their purpose is to focus the mind on some aspect of your relationship with God. The emphasis is on the mind. But we relate to God in the spirit.
Our relationship with God is built on having the closeness of our spirit being connected, immersed, and infused with God’s Spirit. Anything we can create is not able to make us closer to God than that.
Jesus talked about worshipping in Spirit and in truth. In other words worship in the Holy Spirit and in Jesus who is the truth. He didn’t teach us religious traditions, practices or religious symbols. Don’t trade the spiritual for the physical. For our spiritual lives we must always depend on Jesus
The blind man was led out by Jesus. His eyes were opened by Jesus. The first thing he saw clearly was Jesus. When Jesus brings us to a place where we see Him more clearly lets move on in the clarity He gives us. Don’t look back. Don’t go back either physically or mentally.
Keep hold of Jesus’ hand and let him lead you on. Look forward to where he taking you not back to where you once were. Continue focusing only on Jesus.
Full Notes in Preaching
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