What our world needs more than anything in these days is to wake up. We need to wake up people. We need to stop being born out of the understanding of tradition, but be renewed through the understanding of the Son of God who died for us on the Cross. What we need in a sense is a revolution of sorts in terms of our biblical outlook on how we approach the world. Some have said do not touch or taste, how can we not taste? If taste is in everything, if thought isn’t in everything, if breathing isn’t an activity that we participate on every level at all times? What we need to do is wake up, because the moral integrity of our society is in question, mainly the belief in Messiah.
This should not surprise us though, because the majority of people in the House of God do not understand that in order to really walk with Jesus it means counting a price that they are not willing to pay. They are not wiling to face their fellow man or woman because they have not come to peace or grips with the fact that they are sinners. Each one has sinned and gone His own way, but Jesus Christ in His infinite wisdom, bridged the gap to give us eternal life so that we could in fact, be His children, not children of Satan. Persecution is the acid test whether what a believer really is, is what they are. If we believe in Messiah then more than ever, what we need to do is stand upon our knees, and let the Holy Spirit through the Word of God minister the deep things of God unto God’s people.
Yet this is the primary problem, because if we wish to declare the goodness of God, we must also declare His judgment, but with judgment comes the times of His refreshing. If we miss the fact that Messiah wishes to lead us not astray, but towards the truth. Its time that we took our blinders off, and opened our eyes more. The voices are speaking forth and proclaiming forth the Word of God not man’s word, of god, but God’s Word! Many Pastors just want to keep their job so they stifle the truth in suppression so as to make a living. Listen, the Pastorate was never meant to be professional occupation in the first place. If the pastorate were a professional obligation then why did the Apostle Paul not stay in one place during his ministry? Or the other Apostles? Or any of the leaders under Paul’s spiritual authority? Why? These leaders were leaders who knew the truth that preaching the Truth will mean that you will confront the standards of the Word, but must declare forth the Message of the Good News of Messiah.
Persecution only serves to strengthen us, because it is persecution that helps us to appreciate or remember the reason for our faith. When we think of laying our lives down at the foot of the Cross, many of us just flat out don’t get it. Jesus didn’t say go and lay your life down, and then go pick it up, NO, he rebuked the one who kept going back as if that mattered? Surely when one has experienced of the mercy and grace of Messiah, they would in turn desire to experience more of the same pleasures that come from knowing Messiah, inwardly, not outwardly in religious expressions. If words were meant to be the reason for our faith then Jesus Christ wouldn’t have died for our sins.
This may shock some people that words are not the reason for our faith. Throughout the ministry of Messiah, Jesus condemned the kind of religion that puffed itself up against the knowledge of Messiah. It was this kind of religion which we embark on into the forthcoming message on Sunday on Acts 5:12-41. It is the message that no matter what believers in the face of persecution we are to rejoice in the revelation of His love. It is the message that we hold fast too, because it is the message that has changed our lives, and given us a reason for having life, and living it abundantly. Some are not really worshipping the same Jesus at all, for the Jesus in the Bible called one to live from the heart, and sacrifice their life so as to find the life of God presently within them as a reality.
An idol is anything that takes the place of Messiah. Christians believe in the Gospel message, for they believe that it is the power of God to change lives, and to bring them into the scope of salvation history. Some have wished to maintain the position of boasting in arrogance and ignorance. The responses to my last sermon were not shocking to me. People love things rather than the Lord, even Christians. Christians are more interested in what is “hip”, or “in”, in terms of building the best, fastest growing church taken from the latest secular government sponsored studies. Yet, if we are to obey God over men how does that fit into the equation?
Christians for the most part become Christians because they think that going to church, hearing someone preach a nice little message every week, will somehow get them in favor with the “Big guy’ upstairs. Yet this is nothing more than idol worship. It is expecting God to do something when you have not even come to Him first. It is the characteristic of one who may want the truth, but will not transform to the revelation of the truth, because what they want is not really what God has for them. This then becomes an issue or spiritual pride and ignorance, which is common online, because people are instead of being open to the adoption of the truth through the knowledge presented in God’s Word, instead attack the character, credibility and the integrity of the messenger of God. Is this suprising? No, this ought not to surprise us, because Jesus said, “10Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11"Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:10-12). Jesus also said, “"These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. 2They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. 3And these things they will do to you[a] because they have not known the Father nor Me. 4But these things I have told you, that when the[b] time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. "And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.” (John 16:1-5).
Those who are not persecuted are the one’s we ought to be watching out for, because they are the one’s who are riding the pine, who aren’t really engaging in the reality of the presentation of the truth, that all humanity is sinners in need of the grace of God. Some have wished to argue that we are saved only by our works, but this is a cultic position, based upon the assumption that if we are merely good we shall inherit eternal life, which has no biblical basis whatsoever. If all it required was being good, then we would have a definition of what being good was, but since we don’t know what that is, or what form that is, how can we even engage in a discussion on what it is to be good, when we have no foundation for that understanding?
Some have wished to sidestep the teachings put forth by the Lord, whom has blessed me with the ability to share forth His Word in its purity. Some have wished to label me a “false prophet”, but did they not do the same to Messiah? If history serves as any indication, any suppression of the Gospel message, has merely contributed to its growth. If we wish to walk with God in power, then that power that we must proclaim even if it means our lives, is the resurrection, ascension, sinless life, resurrection, and incarnation of Messiah. Why must we defend these doctrines? These are the bedrock of the Christian-Messianic faith.
If what we wish is to walk with God in power, then we have to realize we go forth with power from on High to share the message of the goodness and beauty of God as revealed by the Holy Spirit through the personhood of Messiah. We ought to expect the attack to come, rather than be shocked. If we are living truthfully before God, we will be persecuted, because that persecution will in turn lead to those who wish to oppose the message of the Gospel to have their own blood on their own heads.
The blood of the martyrs, and those who are persecuted in the end will be upon those who willfully reject the truth of Christ who instead adopt the conformality attitude of accepting the message of the world, which is that all works, regardless of how wicked they are, are okay. It doesn’t matter says the world if we sin and mess up, because in the end, you will live another day, and can be more successful. If we are successful in what we do, we can understand that being successful does not bring happiness or bliss necessarily. If your life is going well, you expect certain things to fall into place naturally experiencing them with greater or lesser degrees of frequency.
Some walk in the power of God, while others walk in shame and regret. Why do some seem to be more blessed than others? Abraham walked by faith in God. He left his home, with everything in possession and proceeded to move forward with God at His lead. Abraham encountered many difficult situations, including the situation with Isaac that in turn lead Abraham being called the friend of God. Are you a friend of God? Those who walk with God are those who will be persecuted, spit upon, beaten, shamed, condemned, because what those who reject the Truth will realize by persecuting believers is that they are doing a favor for a believer, when they spit in the face of a believer. Persecution sanctifies, purifies, and cleanses the Church, and calls it to unity. Persecution draws the church, its members and everyone involved to become more aware of the reality of God’s grace while still realizing that the world is still going to be judged in the end by Messiah, at His return.
People of God, Pastors, teachers, evangelists, Prophets, and Apostles of Jesus Christ, is it time that we fought with each other? Or is it time that we embraced one another in love? Is it time that we beat each other over the head, or embraced one another in the common peace we have with Messiah? Each one of us as believers has our differences, and differences are great, but we have the same Messiah who redeemed us through His blood. Do you call Him your friend today? Have you repented of your sins and come into the saving relationship that only resides within the relationship with Messiah? Or do you only wish to sit on the pew or ride the pine? Its time to come to Messiah, let His blood sacrifice cause you to be made His child, and thus enter into the life of walking with God, rather than riding the pine with Satan and his cohorts.
Ride the pine or sit on the pew? Its up to you, but today God is calling His people to quit riding the pine or sitting on the pew, and begin to go forth into the bright white harvest fields and speak forth the message of eternal life through His Son’s sacrifice. Therefore, if you haven’t received Messiah into your life today, all you have to do is repent of your sins (recognize that you are a sinner in need of a Savior, and then receive Christ’s sacrifice for your sins), thus you will become a child of God adopted by His blood. Most importantly, you will become my fellow brother or sister in Messiah.
Pastor Jenkins
