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John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
Jesus knows best how to reach our geographical region with salvation from sin. If I could listen to Him each day and do what He says in the manner He says to do it, then I would be the most effective I could be in reaching the region I live in with the good news of Jesus Christ. If every follower of Jesus heard what Jesus said to do each day and did it in the manner Jesus said to do it, then the local church would be the most effective it could be in reaching its geographical region with the good news of Jesus Christ. The local church can be called Jesus' flock of sheep. Jesus said His sheep hear His voice. I can hear Jesus voice, but am I listening. Today I heard my wife's voice asking me to wake her up 5:30 AM. How did I hear her voice? It was a note left for me. Every time I shower, I hear my wife's voice saying to me the walls of the shower need to be wiped down after I'm done. I remember her desire spoken to me years ago; I heard her voice in my memory of her desire. Sheep hear Jesus' voice each time they read the Scriptures. Sheep hear Jesus' voice each time they remember Jesus' desires. Additionally sheep hear Jesus' voice as the Holy Spirit reveals His will for them. In Acts 8:29 it is recorded, "And the Spirit said to Philip, 'Go over and join this chariot.' " Because Philip listened and obeyed the Spirit, a man was saved from his sins. Sheep hear Jesus as His Spirit speaks to them. How do sheep know it is the Spirit speaking to them? What the Spirit says to a sheep is in accordance with the written word of God. The Holy Spirit will never tell a sheep to steal. We need to pray that as Jesus' sheep hear His voice they will obey what He says. Matthew 21:6 gives us an example to follow, "The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them." Think what an impact a local flock of Jesus' sheep would have on their geographical region if they heard what Jesus' said and did as He directed. Are you listening to Jesus and doing as He directs? You can. Pray that each of us, His sheep, will listen to Jesus, hear Him and obey Him.
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Matthew 4:19 And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
We are looking at how we "Jonahize" our region. In Jonah 3-1-10 Jonah preached God's word throughout Nineveh, a city of 120,000 people for three days. The people repented of their evil and violent ways and God did not judge the city. How do we "Jonahize" our region? Our first step is to pray for families to teach their children the word of God (Psalm 78:1-8; Proverbs 6:20; Ephesians 6:1-4). It is an absolute necessity for one generation to pass the word of God to the next generation. This is accomplished by Dad and Mom teaching the Bible formally and informally 24/7. The second step is to pray that people follow Jesus. Jesus said that He would make each one who follows Him a fisher of men, that is, a disciple maker (Matthew 28:19-20). As we pray God's will we know He hears us and that we have what we ask (1 John 5:14-15). What will our answer to prayer look like? Jesus told us what it takes to follow Him in Matthew 16:24-25 and Luke 14:26-33 (Please read). People who follow Jesus deny themselves (Matthew 16:24). Denying yourselves does not mean not eating or drinking certain foods. Denying yourselves means people take up Jesus plans and purposes for their lives. It means people take up the primary purpose of seeking and saving the lost, making disciples. It means that people call other people to repent of their sin and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; Romans 10:9). People who follow Jesus are willing to die doing God's will, are willing to lose their lives for Jesus' sake (Matthew 16:24-25). People who follow Jesus as His disciple put Him first above all relationships (Luke 14:26) People who follow Jesus as His disciple are willing to lose everything to be His disciple (Luke 14:33). Followers of Jesus will "Jonahize" their region. According to the criteria Jesus has given us to qualify as a follower, do you qualify? The desire to follow Jesus leads us to attempt to fulfill the qualifications; leads to Jesus fulfilling those qualifications in our life. Pray that God would put the desire in our hearts, as the Body of Christ, to follow Jesus and move us to attempt to deny ourselves, be willing to die doing His will, be attempting to put Him first above all relationship and be willing to give up everything to be His disciple. Psalm 78:1 A MASKIL OF ASAPH. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth! 2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, 3 things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. 4 We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done. 5 He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, 6 that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, 7 so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments; 8 and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. What can you do? As you pray God's will to be established, He will reveal to you what else you can do and help you do it. Jonah 3:1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you." 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. 6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish." 10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
God cared about the people of Nineveh, a city of 120,000 people (Jonah 4:11). He sent Jonah to Nineveh to call out against it for their evil and tell them He was going to judge the city by overthrowing it (Jonah 1:1-2; 3:1-2). Jonah did not obey the Lord the first time the Lord sent him, but did go the second time the Lord sent him (Jonah 3:3). Jonah preached that God was going to judge the people by overthrowing the city because of their evil and violent ways. It took Jonah three days to go throughout the city proclaiming God's message to the people. The people of Nineveh took God at His word and called for a fast, from the greatest of them to the least. The king fasted, called for a city wide fast of food and water, and for people to repent of their evil and violent ways. God heard, had mercy and didn't overthrow the city. The United States is going against the will of God and experiencing Romans 1:18-32 (please read). We, as believers, are sent into the world to take God's message of judgment and salvation (John 17:18). We are sent to expose peoples' sin and to proclaim Jesus as the cure for sin. We are sent to people God cares about (John 3:16) to warn them of temporal and eternal judgment, to call them to repent of their evil and violent ways, to believe the gospel and obey His commands by the power of the Holy Spirit. How do we "Jonahize" our entire region? How do we, like Jonah, get the message to our community? In the next days I will lay out a Biblical plan for doing it. Begin to pray today God's people will know they are sent by God with His message of judgment and salvation to people He loves. Begin to pray today for God's people to go to the people God loves with His message of judgment and salvation. Matthew 18:21 Then Peter came and said to Him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" 22 Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
Jesus illustrated His answer in Matthew 18:23-33. This needs to be read. When reading remember the following: (1) ten thousand talents equals two hundred thousand years wages for the common laborer; (2) one hundred denarii equals a little less than on-third of a year wages for the common laborer (0ne hundred days wags); (3) seventy times seven is a phrase that means "an unlimited amount of times." People are going to sin against us. People who love us are going to sin against us. Jesus tells us what to do when people sin against us. What Jesus tells us to do benefits all people since God's will is good, pleasing and perfect (Romans 12:2b). We are to forgive people an unlimited amount of times. The Apostle Paul, the chief of sinners, knew he was forgiven much by God and he taught the truth he learned from Jesus (Galatians 1:12) to the Ephesians believers. Ephesians 4:32 instructs all believers to forgive one another as God in Christ forgave them. How many times does God forgive the average believer? One time per day? Two times per day? Multiple thousands of times in the course of a person's life? Yes, God put no limit on how many times He would forgive us in the course of our life. We are to do to others as He has done and is doing for us. What happens when we forgive a person who sins against us? Jesus tells us in John 8:31-32, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." When we forgive those who sin against us, we are living in freedom. What happens when we won't forgive a person who has sinned against us? In Matthew 18:34-35 Jesus instructs us concerning the outcome of not forgiving a person who sins against us. He tells us we will experience life like a person delivered to jailers (Greek word means: "guards in a prison under orders to torture prisoners"). Life lived in unforgiveness is painful. But God is loving. He wouldn't torture us. The illustration Jesus gave is for the pain experienced, not about God delighting in torturing His people. In Hebrew 12:5-11 we learn that God, because He loves believers, He disciplines them. The discipline is painful, but yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. God would be an unloving God if He let us be destroyed by the sin of unforgiveness. Is there anyone you need to forgive? Matthew 18:19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." As with all scripture, the broader context must be sought to accurately gain the meaning of Jesus' words. In John 15:7 Jesus taught concerning prayer, "If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you." John instructs us that we abide in Jesus by obeying (keeping) His word (1 John 3:24). John also clarifies what "whatever" is that Jesus was speaking of in John 15:7. The "whatever" is anything according to God's will (1 John 5:14-15). Matthew 18:19-20 is referring to anything we ask according to God's will. We have a very powerful opportunity in prayer if we know God's will. How do we know God's will? The written word is the record of God's will. If we are to know God's will, then we need to know the Bible. If we are to get to know the Bible, we need to read it consistently and entirely. We need to read it depending on the Holy Spirit to teach us (John 14:26; 1 Corinthians 2:12). We also need to be listening to the Spirit of God to help us know what to pray (Romans 8:26). We are to listen to what the Holy Spirit instructs us as Philip did in Acts 8:26-40. Read the Acts passage and note in verse 29 how the Holy Spirit gave Philip a specific command. The command did not contradict the written word of God. A communication to us by the Holy Spirit will never contradict the written word. Some things in life we find difficult determining the will of God. One area is the area of physical healing. The written word teaches us that all who believe will have a perfect body when Jesus comes again, but is not that clear concerning physical healing. We need to have the Holy Spirit come upon us with power to have answered prayer concerning physical healing. We know for certain it is God's will for us to understand His word, to live an abundant life, to have our daily needs met, to be free from the habits of sin. We need to pray together and see God work powerfully in our lives and the lives of the people we pray for. Let's test the boundaries of Matthew 18:19-20 by finding a likeminded person and praying together to see God's good, pleasing and perfect will accomplished in the lives of the people we pray for. I have access to a likeminded person in my own house, my wife. We pray together to secure God's unlimited provision in peoples' lives. Find a likeminded person and begin to pray together. Matthew 18:18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. What does this look like in the local church today? The church, doing what the Father has already done from His throne in heaven, declares the unrepentant believer is bound in a state of unforgiveness, not in fellowship with God, and not able to use all the resources of heaven. The unrepentant believer would be instructed again in the milk of the word in order for him to come to repentance, receive forgiveness and once again have access to God's resources that allow him to live free from the corrupting desires of sin, and to live an abundant life in a sin filled world. Matthew 18:15 "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. If we treat a person who does not repent of his sin against us, even after confronted by an entire local community of believers, then we are to treat them as Jesus treated unrepentant tax-collectors and Gentiles. We are to proclaim justice to them, be a light of revelation to them (Matthew 5:16), pray for them, seek to make them a disciple of Jesus, and proclaim to them repentance and the forgiveness of sin. What sins do we consider when following the commands of Matthew 18:15-17? All sin. If we obey Jesus' instruction in Matthew 18:15-17 we will have a healthy Body of Christ. Matthew 18:15 "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
Jesus presents us with a situation that could occur in our life. A fellow believer (brother) could sin against us. Sin is doing what God says not to do. The Ten Commandments illustrate this (Exodus 20:1-17; Romans 7:7, 13). James instructs us that not doing what God says to do is also sin (James 4:17). Jesus gives us two commands, not options, to obey when we are sinned against by a fellow believer. The first is: Go to the brother. The second is: Tell the brother his fault. The Greek word translated fault means to expose his sin. Please notice Jesus told us to go and expose the sin just to the one who sinned against us. No one else was to be involved initially. Think how healthy the Body would be if we obeyed these two commands, "go" and "tell". Jesus commands us what to do if the one who sinned against us does not listen to us. Jesus commands us to take one or two fellow believers with us to expose our brother's sin. Jesus gives us one more command to obey if the brother will not listen to the witnesses we brought. We are to tell it to the church, the community of believers and the community of believers are to expose the brother's sin that he sinned against us. The brother may not listen even to the church and fail to repent of his sin. Jesus has one last command for us if the one who sinned against us doesn't acknowledge and repent of his sin. Let the one who sinned against us be to us as a Gentile and a tax collector (Tomorrow I will take up what that would look like). What do you think would happen if we obeyed the commands Jesus gave us to do if someone sins against us (Read Lamentations 2:14 before you answer and think of what happens if the immune system of the body doesn't work well)? Do you think the church treats Jesus' commands as options? What are you going to do with what you have learned today (Matthew 28:20; John 14:21 will help you answer the question)? Matthew 18:10 "See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. 11 12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. Little children are very important to the Lord and He expects us to help find them and bring them into His flock. The Lord wants us to help children be saved from their sin. Verse 10: Despise means to look down on with contempt; to consider of little value. We are commanded not to despise the little ones. God highly values them. The Lord has assigned angels to look out for them (Hebrews 1:14) Verse 12-13: Jesus reveals that we look for a lost sheep because it has value to us, economic value. A child has much more value than a sheep, but costs to care for in time and money. A child takes a long time to raise and to become productive economically. Sin focuses our attention on what immediately affects us and causes us to place security in material things and look at children as a burden and not a blessing of great value. God always provides when we do His will (Matthew 6:33). Verse 14 God's will is good, pleasing and perfect (Romans 12:2b). In todays culture adults find spending time with little children undesirable. They want to be with their adult friends and in the work place earning money to spend on their pleasures. Children are looked upon as a nuisance. God highly values children and so should we. What we are to do having been instructed by Matthew 18:10-14: (1) We need to encourage those who are spending time with children (especially mothers) and let them know the high importance of their work. We need to make sure we are helping children be found, that is, know Jesus as their Savior. We need to be teaching children the Scriptures formally each day and informally at every teachable moment. We who have no children need to help those with children using our time, money, and prayers. When we help accomplish God's will we find great satisfaction, gratification and completion and we benefit all around us. |
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