Living the Kingdom: Understanding and Applying Jesus' Teachings

Bible Reading:
1. Matthew 5:15-16 [16:21]
2. Matthew 28:19 [17:52]
3. Mark 1:1 [22:28]

Observation Questions:
1. What is the significance of the lamp and its placement in Matthew 5:15-16?
2. In Matthew 28:19, what does Jesus command his disciples to do?
3. How does Mark 1:1 introduce Jesus and why is this significant?

Interpretation Questions:
1. How does the metaphor of the lamp in Matthew 5:15-16 relate to our role as Christians?
2. What does it mean to "make disciples of all nations" as instructed in Matthew 28:19?
3. How does the introduction of Jesus in Mark 1:1 shape our understanding of his identity and mission?

Application Questions:
1. How can you let your "light shine before others" in your daily interactions?
2. What is one specific way you can "make disciples" in your current context?
3. How can you personally relate to the revelation of Jesus as the Messiah in Mark 1:1? How does this impact your faith journey?
4. Can you think of a situation where you can demonstrate God's Kingdom power through your actions, similar to Jesus in Mark 1:1?
5. How can you apply the teachings of Jesus in your life to serve and love others more effectively?

Day 1: The Idolatry of Money

Money is often an idol that we put before our relationship with God. Jesus uses finances as an example to illustrate that nothing in our lives should come before our relationship with Him. This is not just about money, but about any idol that takes precedence over God in our hearts. [13:33]

Proverbs 11:28 - "Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf."

Reflection: What are some idols in your life that might be taking precedence over your relationship with God?

Day 2: Self-Righteousness and Judgement

Jesus teaches us to deal with our own righteousness before we judge others. It's like the airplane safety instruction to put on your own oxygen mask before helping others. Once we are right with God, we can then help others to be right with God. [14:13]

Matthew 7:5 - "You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

Reflection: How can you work on your own righteousness before judging others?

Day 3: Kingdom Living

Jesus's teachings expand on what Moses taught and give us a new understanding of the Kingdom of God. The foundation of Kingdom living is not just understanding who Jesus is, but also applying His teachings to our lives. [15:38]

Matthew 5:14-16 - "You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."

Reflection: How can you apply Jesus's teachings to your life to live out the Kingdom of God?

Day 4: Accepting Jesus

Accepting Jesus into our hearts as our Lord and Savior is the first step to experiencing His love and salvation. It's not just about knowing about Him, but making the decision to let Him have control over our lives. [56:16]

John 1:12 - "Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."

Reflection: How can you surrender control of your life to Jesus and accept Him as your Lord and Savior?

Day 5: Making Disciples

Once we have accepted Jesus and His teachings, we are called to make disciples of all nations. This means taking what we have learned about Jesus and teaching others about Him. [17:52]

Matthew 28:19-20 - "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Reflection: How can you take what you have learned about Jesus and teach others about Him?

Welcome, Church! Welcome to Sunday service!

I did not get a response. Come on, man! It is the 11 o'clock service; it is not the 9 o'clock service, nor is it the old 8:30 service. You should be alive and well! So, who's excited about this series? We're walking through the New Testament, right?

But I want to just tell you this is not a cheat code for your reading of the New Testament. So at the end of the six weeks, I don't want you to say, "I've read the New Testament because I came to church every Sunday." No, no, no, no! We want you to actually read the New Testament.

So today, week two, we're going to get into the Gospels. I want you all to change your perception of the room that you are in, right? So you don't have to do this, but I want you to close your eyes and imagine 24 years ago, 30 years ago, 50 years ago when you were 19 years old and you were in college. I want you to pretend like you are in a college lecture hall taking a survey of the New Testament because some of this sermon is going to be educational, and some of the sermon is going to touch your heart.

I know for some of you it's hard to imagine that you're 19 again, but I think you could give it a try. I'm sorry, that was a terrible dig.

So, the Gospels have historic importance in our world. It has historic importance for all of humanity, but it has a tremendous amount of importance for us because it is the divine revelation of our salvation in Jesus Christ and the redemptive power, the work of our Lord.

The Gospels make up the first four books of the New Testament, and those books are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You guys are getting A's; I can tell already!

It is the primary source of information for the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If you talk to Pastor Brent, he'll tell you that if you want to read about Jesus, you can start in the Old Testament. And I'll tell you, if you want to read about Jesus, you can start or finish in the Gospels.

So let's answer a few questions about the Gospels and give some historical basis for them.

So, when were the Gospels written? The Gospels were written between— it started to be written at about 40 A.D. and possibly finished at about 100 A.D. So why is this important? It's important because Jesus died at about 36 A.D.

And you're probably looking at me like, "Carlson, Jesus was 33 years old when he died." So he died at 33 A.D. No, no, that's not correct. The Roman government didn't start counting A.D. years, and so Jesus was about two or three years old. Jesus was actually born in B.C., and that's something that you all know now.

So the significance of that is that the Gospels were written about four years after Jesus died. That's just like if you were to write about your experience during the pandemic. Your experience would be accurate; it would be vivid, right? You would still feel the emotions and the effects of what you went through during the pandemic. It would be so real to you.

So we can't look at the Gospels as some fairy tale of a far-off time written by some random guys. This is an accurate portrayal with passion of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

So why were the Gospels written? Well, the Gospels were written because the early church was growing. I mean, as soon as Jesus dies, the disciples hit the ground running, spreading the Gospel to everybody. But they spread the Gospel verbally; they preached based on their memory. They needed to write down and document the eyewitness accounts of Jesus to get the Gospel spread throughout the entire world.

So as the early church was growing and the eyewitness accounts of Jesus were getting fewer and fewer, the teachings of Jesus needed to be documented.

So what is the Gospel? One-third of the Gospel talks about Jesus's death. So I can't call it a biography of Jesus. The word Gospel actually means "good news." It is a news announcement. When you read the Gospels, you are reading a news announcement about the Messiah who has come to save the world.

So how do we read the Gospels? Do we read the Gospels in chronological order? See, I like to read my Bible in chronological order because I want to know what happens next. I like to read it like a full giant story, like a novel. But we don't read the Gospels like that. We read the Gospels one book at a time.

Why? Because we need to get the different perspectives of Jesus. By a show of hands, who's been to jail? Not prison ministry, Pastor Asa, but actual jail. Has anyone been processed?

So when you go to jail and are processed— I'm not speaking on this from experience— they take a picture of the different sides of your face, portrait, and then both sides of your face so that they can get a full description of who you are. And that's what the Gospels do for us. We have four Gospels of Jesus's life so we can get the full description of who Jesus is.

And when you are processing in jail, they take multiple angles, take a picture of multiple angles of you to get the depth and the description of one person. And what the Gospel does is it gives us four different paths to reach the conclusion that Jesus is the Son of God.

So let's jump into Matthew.

So Matthew, I'm going to start with the thesis of Matthew. He wants you to know that the person he's introducing, that Jesus, is the long-awaited Messiah. He wants you to know that the Messiah that's prophesied about in the Old Testament is the Jesus that he's about to talk about. And with that, he's going to give us the teachings of Jesus that we need to follow.

So Matthew is the first book of the New Testament and the first book of the Gospels. Why? Because Matthew wants to continue the story of the Old Testament through Jesus. Matthew has 29 quotes, and he references 121 scriptures of the Old Testament. He has the most Old Testament references of the entire Bible.

Matthew wants it to be clear that the Jesus he is presenting is the long-awaited Messiah, and he does this through three major aspects of Jesus.

First, he wants you to know that Jesus is from the line of David, that he is the prophesied Messiah from the line of David and that he is heir to the throne. Jesus is our Messiah, and he does this through Jesus's genealogy. He takes you back through Jesus's family line back to David to let you know who Jesus is.

Isaiah chapter 1, verse 10 says, "In that day, the heir to David's throne will be a banner of salvation to all the world."

The second aspect that Matthew wants you to get of Jesus is that Jesus is God with us, or in Hebrew, Emmanuel. So he goes through Jesus's birth story, and he identifies the events of Jesus's birth as it relates to the prophecies of the Old Testament. He talks about how the nations will bless Jesus through the wise men, how Jesus will be born in Bethlehem, and how Jesus would be born of a virgin through immaculate conception by the Holy Spirit.

And then the third way that Matthew wants us to see Jesus, or the aspect of Jesus, is that Jesus is the new authoritative teacher like Moses. He’s given us new teaching.

So Matthew's writing structure gives us that information that Jesus is now the new figure that is going to teach us about the kingdom. Deuteronomy 18 says, "Then the Lord said to me, 'What they have said is right. I will raise up a prophet like you from among the fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell the people everything I command him.'"

The structure of Matthew identifies Jesus as the new Moses. You see, Matthew breaks up Jesus's teachings into five blocks, and it parallels the first five books of the Bible, the Torah that Moses wrote, in order to teach the Israelites how to live well.

Matthew takes Jesus's teachings and breaks them up into five blocks in order to teach us how to live. And some of the most famous teachings about God's kingdom can be found in the Sermon on the Mount, and that's found in Matthew chapters 5 through 7, where Jesus tells us that the kingdom of God is for everybody. Everybody is invited to the kingdom of God.

He goes on to teach us about prayer and fasting, giving to the needy, about money and possessions, about judging others, and how true discipleship is following the will of Jesus.

So let's go through some examples of Jesus's teaching because this is the new teaching that we need in order to know how to live in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Matthew chapter 5, verse 21 says, "You have heard that our ancestors were told, 'You must not murder.' If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment. But I say, if you are even angry with someone—" Who's been angry at someone?

Okay, well, this next statement is for you. "But if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment. If you call someone an idiot—" I'm not even going to ask you who's called someone an idiot— "you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, including this past weekend, you are in danger of the fires of hell."

So be careful; hell is hot!

So Jesus takes Moses's law and he expands it. So Moses is concerned with the action or the end result or the fruit of the heart of murder, right? "Thou shalt not kill." Jesus is concerned with the conception of the thought and the heart. He wants to deal with the heart issue as well as the action.

In Matthew chapter 6, Jesus goes on to say, "No one can serve two masters, for you will hate one and love the other. You will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money."

Jesus is using money as an example of things that we put before our relationship with God. We cannot have any idol in our lives; we can't have any other God before God. So Jesus uses an example that's in everyone's heart—our finances—and he uses that as a point to say that there is nothing in your life that should come before your relationship with God.

He's digging at a heart issue.

And then our final example is in Matthew chapter 7, starting in verse 3: "And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, 'Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,' when you can't see past the log in your own eye?"

I love this next word; he calls them hypocrites! "First, get rid of the log in your own eye, then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye."

How can you judge someone's actions when you have to deal with your own actions?

You know, it's kind of like when you're on the airplane and they tell you that when the oxygen mask drops, put it on yourself first and then help your friend. It's the same thing. God wants you to deal with your righteousness first before you can then go and say you want to help somebody else.

But he doesn't say that you absolutely can't because once you are right with God, then you can show someone else how to be right with God.

So Jesus's teachings are strong and powerful, and they deal with the heart issue on top of the action of wrongdoings or the action of sin because it starts in your heart.

So Jesus's new teaching expands what Moses has taught and gives us a new look at the kingdom of God.

So let's look at the foundation of this kingdom teaching in Matthew chapter 7, verse 21. It says, "Not everyone who calls out to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

My grandfather used to say, "Everyone at church isn't saved." Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. He says "actually do." It's more than just receiving the teaching as good work, but then you have to apply it to your life and actually do the will of God.

Would you say, "Pastor Carlson, what's the will of God?" I'm glad you asked! Thank you so much!

In Matthew chapter 5, starting in verse 14, Jesus says, "You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven."

The foundation of kingdom living is not just understanding who Jesus is; it's not just receiving his teaching as your own, but it is serving others so that they can glorify God, and we can glorify God.

So Matthew is linking two ideas in his Gospel. He's saying that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah that's been prophesied about in the Old Testament, and with that, his teachings need to be applied in our life, and we need to actually do his will, which is to serve others and love others.

So do you believe that Jesus is the prophesied Messiah? Do you believe that his teachings start in your hearts and then end with you actually doing his will?

Okay, great! So what do we do with that information?

Jesus says in Matthew 28:19, "This is what you do with the information that you have: therefore go and make disciples of all nations. Make disciples of everybody! Take what you have learned about me and then teach others about me, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."

Teaching them to actually do my will, teaching them to obey all the commands I have given you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

That's Matthew, and that's what we need to do with the information that he's given us.

Let's jump to Mark.

So Mark has a slightly different take on the perspective of Jesus than Matthew. So Matthew wants us to know that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah and that his teachings are the new teachings of kingdom living. But Mark wants you to have a more close personal relationship with Jesus. He wants you to have a personal revelation of who he is through the demonstration of Jesus's teaching. He wants you to see the demonstration of kingdom power in your life and for you to get a personal revelation of Jesus.

So Mark is not a disciple of Jesus, okay? He is the assistant, or in my terms, the executive pastor of his cousin Barnabas and to Paul and Peter. And that did not get enough laughs; that's terrible! I'll try harder. But that's why he's my favorite Bible character!

Whatever, I'll just start over.

So Mark is actually writing Peter's eyewitness accounts of Jesus, and a lot of people call the Book of Mark the Gospel of Peter because Mark is taking what Peter is preaching about Jesus and he's documenting it. But Mark is not just writing it down on paper randomly; he has organized it in a very particular way.

So the Book of Mark has a very interesting structure that leads to the purpose of the book. So Mark rushes us—he rushes us through three years of Jesus's ministry in the first few pages of the book. I mean, it is a fast-paced, action-packed book that leads us to the point of the book.

It has 37 miracles; it is the most of the four Gospels. It is full of action and suspense, and it is just a wonderful read. If you are looking for a miracle or healing, if you are looking for God to move in your life physically, then Mark is the book that you need to read.

41 times, Mark uses the word "immediately." Jesus is always on the go; he is always moving from person to person, to crowd to crowd, to miracle to miracle, to healing to healing. 41 times, Mark uses the word "immediately" because Mark is trying to let us know that Jesus's journey is racing to a point, and the point is the purpose of the book.

Mark writes through Jesus's journey from years to months to weeks to days to moments. As you read through it, he builds up Jesus's journey to the cross, and then he slows down at the cross because he's trying to get you to the point of the book.

So in the beginning of the Book of Mark, Mark introduces Jesus as the Messiah, as the Son of God. And for the rest of the book, he wants you to develop your own revelation of who he is by the acts of Jesus.

So Jesus is pretty much preaching the same message that we find in Matthew, but instead of seeing it in a teaching format, we see it in an action format. Jesus demonstrates this kingdom teaching by casting out demons, by healing the sick. He demonstrates his teaching through miracles that the disciples experience.

And here are some examples of how Jesus demonstrates God's kingdom power, and each person that Jesus dealt with, or each crowd that he dealt with, got a personal and public revelation of who Jesus is.

So early in the book, Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law. And I'm not sure if Peter was happy that Jesus healed his mother-in-law, but Jesus goes ahead and heals Peter's mother-in-law. Now, Peter's mother-in-law is not called to be a disciple; she's not mentioned often in the Gospels, but she gets a special touch from Jesus. She gets a personal revelation of who Jesus is in her life.

Not only that, but the people around her, family and the people in the home, they get a glimpse of who Jesus is. Later, Jesus removes some demons from a man who was possessed, and there were so many demons in this man that Jesus was able to take those demons out, and the Bible says to put them in 2,000 pigs.

I don't care; it doesn't matter what spiritual attack you are going through in your life; Jesus can handle it. Whether it's one spiritual attack or 2,000 spiritual attacks, Jesus can handle it. That man received a revelation of who Jesus is in his life.

Jesus heals Jairus's daughter, who was believed to be dead, and Jesus says, "She's just sleeping," and he tells her to get up. His daughter got a revelation of who Jesus is in her life. Jairus got a revelation of who Jesus is for him and his family, and everyone around them got a glimpse that Jesus is the Son of God.

On his way to healing Jairus's daughter, a woman who had a bleed for 12 years gets to Jesus and touches the hem of his garment, the bottom of his robe, in order to be healed. Now, she had spent all of her money with doctors, and her bleed kept getting worse and worse over the 12 years, but she had faith enough to touch the bottom of his robe to get healed.

Now, she may have already had a revelation of who Jesus is because she went out of her way to get to Jesus in order to be healed and to believe that if she just touched his clothes, she would be healed. But whether she already had an idea of who Jesus is, because Jesus healed her, she's got a new, fresh revelation of who he is in her life.

And not only that, Jesus stops everything and he says, "Who touched me?" bringing attention to the power that he has in him that was able to heal that woman. So not only did she get a revelation of who Jesus is by the demonstration of his power, but everybody around Jesus got a revelation of who he is by that same power.

Jesus feeds 5,000—5,000 men, so women and children probably took that number up to about 20,000 or 25,000 people—and he fed them with a fish dinner: two pieces of fish and five slices of Hawaiian bread.

I'm not sure why this kid had five slices of Hawaiian bread, but the kid that gave it to Jesus to feed the multitude got a revelation of who Jesus is in that moment. Certainly, the boy who gave his food as an offering to feed all these people learned who Jesus is that day.

The disciples, because they participated in the miracle, because they had to distribute the food— I couldn't imagine distributing food to 20,000 people; it's a long day! And then all of the people got a glimpse of who Jesus is. They got a revelation of who he is through the demonstration of Jesus's service to them through the power of God.

Story after story, miracle after miracle, we see Jesus's service to us and to his people through the power of God. Even the disciples get their own personal experience with Jesus. Jesus tells them to get on a boat and to go to the other side.

And I love how Jesus gives them the end of the story in the beginning. He told them that we are going to the other side. But you know what happens when the storm comes? We forget everything that Jesus had promised us, that we've been prophesied to, that our grandma has been praying to us about. We completely throw it out when the storm comes.

What's Jesus doing in this storm? He's asleep! Just like Jesus to be asleep during the worst time in my life! To be silent! Come on, Jesus! I need you to be with me! Throwing water off this boat!

Anyways, that's a whole sermon in itself.

But the storm comes, the disciples are terrified, and they go and wake up Jesus. They say, "Jesus, don't you care that we are about to die?" Completely forgetting that he said—he already told them they were going to get to the other side.

Jesus wakes up, tells them, "You faithless bunch of people!" And then he calms the storm. When he calms the storm, the disciples look at each other and say, "Who is this that creation follows his commands?" The disciples get a personal revelation of who Jesus is in the middle of their crisis.

So I mentioned that Mark is racing us to a point. He's going through quickly all of the miracles and healings of Jesus to get us to a point, and that point is the cross.

And at the cross, we get a full and complete picture of Jesus being the Son of God. So Mark 10 says, "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many."

The ultimate demonstration of service and the power of God that gives us the revelation of who he is is him giving up himself and dying on the cross.

Healings and miracles are great; they give us a window or some insight into who Jesus is in our lives. But it is at the cross, the ultimate sacrifice, that we see who God really is for us in our lives.

So Jesus is wrongfully convicted of treason by the Roman government. The Roman government is influenced by the religious leaders at the time, and Jesus gets arrested. He gets tortured, and they nail him to a cross.

And as Jesus is hanging on the cross and dying, creation responds. The sky grows dark, the Earth shakes, and all of creation groans and mourns the death of its creator. And it is at that time that a Roman soldier looks up at Jesus and says, "This man is truly the Son of God."

So Mark sandwiches Jesus's identity in his book. Mark starts the book with "Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God," and then he gives you a demonstration of kingdom living and kingdom power so that you can have your own personal revelation of who he is.

And then at the end, at the cross, Jesus's ultimate service to all of humanity, we get a full understanding that he is the Son of God.

So you may be in need of a healing; you may be in need of a miracle. And I want you to pray to God that he moves in your life so that you can experience him in that way. But then understand that the way that you get a full, complete picture of who Jesus is is by understanding his sacrifice for you at the cross.

So the next book that we're going to jump to is Luke.

Luke's thesis is that Jesus came to save the lost, including the marginalized of society. He came and saved those that society has missed.

So Luke is the only Gentile to write in the New Testament, and Luke is traveling with Paul on Paul's journey. But when Paul gets arrested, it's an opportunity for Luke to gather eyewitness accounts of Jesus because Luke doesn't have any eyewitness accounts of Jesus.

So Luke gets Matthew, he gets Mark, he gets John, he gets Mary to formulate the Book of Luke. One thing to note is that Luke is a doctor, and I think that God has a sense of humor because he gets a doctor, a man of science, to describe the virgin birth of Jesus, a supernatural event.

So in Luke, it's easy for us to see that Jesus is interested in people. It doesn't matter the class or economic status; it doesn't matter the age or the gender. He wants you to know that Jesus is interested in people and that he's coming to seek and save all people.

So Luke starts with a parallel of the birth story of John the Baptist and Jesus, but Luke focuses on people in the family that Jesus loves. For John the Baptist, his parents are elderly, and Luke points this out and takes you through their journey of John's birth.

And then he gives you the perspective of Jesus's parents, a young unmarried couple who's dealing with a virgin birth of immaculate conception. He's giving you insight on these people that Jesus loves.

Jesus came for Samaritans and Gentiles, the outcasts, including the leper, tax collectors, shepherds, prostitutes. He mentions 10 women; that's not in any other Gospel because Jesus is the savior for the lost, especially those that society has missed.

One example of this is that Zacchaeus—Jesus has an encounter with Zacchaeus, and his encounter with Zacchaeus completely changes his life.

So Zacchaeus is a tax collector, and what we know about tax collectors is that tax collectors in this time are the scum of the Earth, okay? So Zacchaeus is collecting taxes for the Roman government from his own people, but he's not just collecting the amount that the Roman government has given him; he's collecting a little bit more, robbing his own people.

He's working for the man, robbing his people. He is the scum of the Earth, and Jesus invites himself to his home to bring salvation to his home.

Luke 19:9: Jesus responds, "Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost."

Zacchaeus was lost, and Jesus sought him out and saved him and his household.

Luke goes through Jesus's genealogy through David, much like Matthew, letting you know that Jesus is from the Messianic line of David, heir to the throne. But Luke goes back further; he goes back to Abraham, and then he goes back to Adam.

Why does he go back to Adam? Because all of humanity has come from Adam, and he's letting us know that Jesus is the savior for all people.

So we get to Luke chapter 4, and Jesus goes to the temple to read the scroll. And what happens is when a rabbi goes to the temple to read the scroll, he reads where the previous person left off. So it's not planned; you just continue reading day after day after day.

And Jesus gets to the scroll in the temple, and it lands on Isaiah 61, where it talks about him. I mean, that's a miracle in itself! This is what it says about himself. He's reading this about himself:

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me."

Can you imagine Jesus at the temple reading this about himself?

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to confront the brokenhearted, to proclaim that the captives will be released, the prisoners will be freed. He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord's favor has come and with it the day of God's anger against their enemies."

Notice the word that he's using in Isaiah. The words that he's reading—the first descriptor is "poor." And not poor and lacking money, because in Hebrew, "poor" is anyone who has been outcast or society has left out.

"Poor" is the women, the widows, the children, the elderly—those that have fallen short of following the law of Moses.

Jesus continues to read more descriptors. He says "brokenhearted," "captive," "prisoners," and "those who mourn." Jesus highlights who the kingdom of God is for. It's for those who have fallen short of being accepted by society.

For example, Jesus heals a man with leprosy, and the man said, "Jesus, ask him, 'Do you want to be healed?'" And the man said, "Only if you are willing." And Jesus says, "Yes, I'm willing," because I came especially for you.

Jesus publicly invites Matthew—Luke calls him Levi, but it's Matthew, the tax collector. And what did we learn about tax collectors? They're the scum of the Earth!

Now, don't talk to your tax accountant and tell him or don't say it to the IRS that they're the scum of the Earth; that's wrong!

But he invites Matthew to be a disciple, to be in his inner circle. He knows exactly what people think about tax collectors, but he reaches out to him to bring him in.

He heals a man who has a deformed hand, who has a disability on the Sabbath of all days, making a public display of the healing, letting everyone know that he came for this man.

He forgives a prostitute of her sins. He raises a widow's son, and so on and so on. And we see that Jesus expands the circle of who the kingdom is for by everyone he comes in contact with that has been marginalized by society.

When John the Baptist was in jail, he was curious about Jesus. He said, "Is this the Messiah that we are looking for?" Because he is not like the rabbis that we see and that we know. We are expecting a different person than the one that Jesus is portraying.

And so John the Baptist sends his disciples to investigate. In Luke chapter 7, John's two disciples found Jesus and said to him, "John the Baptist sent us to ask."

I love how they just placed the blame on John! They weren't curious about Jesus themselves. And I'll confess that I do this sometimes when I'm talking to staff. I say, "Pastor Brent said," even though I really want to know what's going on.

They say, "John the Baptist sent us to ask, 'Are you the Messiah we've been expecting, or should we keep on looking for someone else?'" Because you don't fit the bill!

At that very time, Jesus cured many people of their diseases, illnesses, and evil spirits. He restored sight to many who were blind. Then he told John's disciples, "Go back to John and tell him what you have seen and heard: the blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the good news is being preached to the poor."

When they are investigating if he is the Messiah, he confirms that he is the Son of God by linking himself with the blind, the lame, the leprosy, the deaf, the dead, and the poor because Jesus is the Lord of the lost.

It says in verse 23, "And he added, 'God blesses those who do not fall away because of me.'"

Don't be upset that Jesus is saving those that are marginalized in society—those people that you think don't deserve the blessings of God.

So I have a question for you: Are you poor? I'm broke; I don't know if it's poor, but are you poor? Are you an outcast in society? Do you work in the corporate world for the man like Zacchaeus and Matthew? Are you disabled? Are you a woman? Are you a man? Are you a child? Are you elderly? Are you middle-aged? Are you black? Are you white? Are you Nigerian? Are you Hispanic? Are you tall? Are you short? Are you thin? Are you thicker?

Do you know who you are in Christ? Do you not know who you are in Christ? Good! The kingdom of God is for you! Jesus came to seek and save you!

If you fit in any category you can come up with in our world today, in our world yesterday, and in our world tomorrow, Jesus came to save you.

One of Jesus's last acts of being the Savior to all people is when he's dying on the cross. And we know the same well. Jesus is suffering; he's struggling to breathe. He's got to hold himself up in order to breathe on the wooden cross. Mind you, his back is completely open down to muscle and bone.

And Jesus cares so much about the lost that he's having a conversation with a thief that's being crucified next to him. Jesus cares so much about the lost that he is accepting this man into the kingdom of heaven.

Every part of Jesus's entire life, he is seeking and saving the lost.

Our final book is John. John is extremely unique. John is declaring that Jesus is God. He doesn't care about the evidence; he doesn't care to convince you. He is making a declaration. He is making a statement. This book is a statement that Jesus is God.

He doesn't care how you feel about it or what you think. I mean, if you read through John, Jesus is arguing with everybody about who he is and what he came to do. John does not care; he wants you to know Jesus is God.

So John is one of the disciples of Jesus, and he is noted to be one of the last surviving because when Jesus tells Peter that Peter is going to possibly die by a crucifixion, Peter says, "Well, what about John?" And Jesus looks at Peter and says, "None of your business!"

We know John; he lives a very long time, past his 90s. He writes a very good book that's the last book of your Bible that you should read on your downtime.

There's no laughs about Revelation; that's okay! But we know that John lives a long time and that he is one of the disciples whom Jesus loves because he writes about it.

And we can see the relationship between John and Jesus and the closeness that they have based on how John writes. For example, who said this?

I know in your Bible it's red, but who said this? "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Is Jesus speaking in third person, or is John expanding the heart and the words of Jesus?

So John is completely different from the other Gospels. There are hardly any parables or healings. There's no birth story, there's no baptism, no temptation in the wilderness, there's no casting out of demons, there's no Last Supper, there's no Garden of Gethsemane, we don't see Jesus fly off into heaven, he doesn't transform into his glorious body.

But why? Why does John leave those out? Because it's irrelevant to the purpose of the book.

So John opens the book with a bang! And the opening of John is scriptures that we know well. We know it very well, so much so that we probably get confused with the beginning of the Bible: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth."

In John chapter 1, verse 1, he says, "In the beginning, the Word." And the Word is capitalized because it's a proper noun because the Word is Jesus.

"In the beginning, the Word already existed." The first sentence that John gives us is that Jesus is God. He's been here long before he came down on Earth in flesh.

"In the beginning, the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it."

John is making no bones about who Jesus is in his opening statements of his book.

Still in the first chapter, John gives Jesus seven names: Lamb of God, Son of God, Rabbi, Son of Man, Messiah, King of Israel, and Jesus of Nazareth.

We're still in the first chapter, and John is hammering down the fact that Jesus is God.

John uses seven miracles, and only seven miracles. He only uses these miracles because these are miracles that only God can do without question or doubt.

For example, God—Jesus turns water into wine in John chapter 2. You all were there; you remember the wedding. The groom was broke, and they ran out of wine, and all we had was foot-washing water.

Jesus turned that water into the best wine money can buy, and he had two witnesses. He had the two servants who were distributing the wine. See, the water turned into wine; that's a miracle that only God can do.

He heals the official's son. The official came to Jesus and said that his son is sick and he needs to be healed. Jesus doesn't even show up to the man's house; he just speaks it, and he's healed.

The official's servant comes to meet him halfway and says, "No need to bother the master; he's already healed." Jesus did not go and touch him; he did not go and see what was going on. The boy was healed from where Jesus was. That's a miracle that only God can do.

Jesus heals the man at the pool of Bethesda. The man's lame for 38 years; there's no question he got healed by Jesus. He doesn't even know who Jesus is to have a preconceived notion that Jesus could heal him to begin with.

He doesn't say, "Oh, well, I'm going to, you know, just show off and, you know, give big ups to Jesus and say that he healed me because I know that he's the Messiah." He had no clue!

Only this is a miracle that God can do.

Jesus feeds 5,000 in John 6, and we know that story. Who's feeding 20,000 people with a couple of pieces of fish and some bread? It's a miracle only God can do!

And he had 20,000 witnesses plus his disciples.

Jesus walks on water—only a miracle God could do! Now, when the disciples saw him out there in the water, they were like, "Is that a ghost?" You know, so maybe it was Jesus; maybe it wasn't Jesus.

No, Jesus didn't stop there; he walked towards them, and he had one of them participate in the miracle. Peter gets off the boat, and he walks on water because Jesus doesn't want any question of his power and his authority as God.

Not only does he give you a miracle in your life, but he wants you to participate in the miracle. So there's some things by faith that he wants you to do in partnership with him to change your life so that you can know that he is God.

Jesus heals a man born blind—not a man who woke up in the morning and got soap in his eye and looked for Jesus to throw some splash of water on his face. No, the man was born blind, and everyone knew it.

Jesus heals him so much so, so much controversy around this healing that the Pharisees go and get the man's parents to verify that this man was blind and that now he can see.

They didn't know that they were giving more evidence to Jesus being God because if your parents say that you're blind, guess what? You're blind!

And then lastly, in John chapter 11, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. And Lazarus is dead—like dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead!

He's so dead that Jesus waits till he dies to make sure that he's dead. I mean, they call Jesus; Jesus said, "I'm not going yet; he's not dead enough."

He's dead—not like Jairus's daughter, who Jesus says is sleeping, right? Because he could be like, "Ah, maybe she was sleeping." No, no! Lazarus is dead!

They wrapped him in the dead man's cloth—I don't know what you call that. They didn't go to Israel; they wrapped him in the cloth for the dead. They threw him in the tomb and rolled the stone over it.

Reminds you of somebody you know, right?

Jesus comes; he sees Mary; he cries with Mary. He sees Martha; he says, "Don't say anything; you said too much already."

He goes to the tomb; they roll away the stone; he calls Lazarus out. He made sure he was dead because it's a miracle that only God can do.

John sees miracles as signs, and signs point to something. John wants us to know that Jesus is God.

So Jesus further expresses his deity because he uses the seven "I am" statements. And "I am" is the Hebrew covenant name of God that Moses discovers when he's talking to God in the burning bush.

He says, "Who do I tell Pharaoh who sent me?" And God says, "I am that I am."

And Jesus uses this about himself. He says, "I am the bread of life. I am the light to the world. I am the shepherd. I am the door of the sheep. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the true vine."

There's no question that John knows that Jesus is God. There's no question that Jesus knows that he is God.

But the question I have for you is, do you know that Jesus is God?

And finally, John uses the word "believe" nearly a hundred times in the Book of John. Why does he do that? He does that on purpose. He spends so much energy letting you know that Jesus is God, but he reminds you a hundred times to believe that Jesus is God.

In John chapter 20, verse 30-31, it says, "But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him, you will have life by the power of his name."

So do you believe that Jesus is our long-awaited Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament and that his teachings of kingdom living are in your hearts and need to be acted out?

Do you believe that the demonstration of kingdom power through miracles and healing in your life gives you the revelation of who he is?

Do you believe that he is the savior for the lost, that he is your savior, no matter what category of life that you are in?

Do you believe that he is the Son of God?

And so I want you to experience those aspects of Jesus, but first we need to make sure that we have accepted Jesus into our hearts and into our lives as our Lord and Savior.

So I want you to close your eyes and bow your head as we pray.

And if you have not received Jesus as your savior, you could just be finding out about him and how wonderful he is, or you could have known about him but haven't made the decision to bring him into your heart, to have control over your life, and to be your Lord.

If that's you, I want you to kind of paraphrase what I'm going to say in this prayer:

"Dear Jesus, thank you for opening my eyes to the truth of who you are. Thank you for opening my heart to you. I know that I need you in my life. Now I want to live how you want me to live. I want you to cleanse me of all of my wrongdoing and sin and make me a new person in you. I want to receive the full experience of you, and I want to experience your love for me in my life. I believe that you died for me and you took the punishment I deserve. I receive your free gift of salvation, and I receive you as my God. In Jesus' name, amen."

If you've prayed that prayer or if that prayer has already been in your heart, if you know who Jesus is, I want you to stand as the worship team comes, and let's celebrate that Jesus is Lord!

1. "Do you know who you are in Christ? Good, the kingdom of God is for you. Jesus came to seek and save you if you fit in any category you can come up with in our world today, in our world yesterday, and in our world tomorrow. Jesus came to save you." - 42:33

2. "Jesus uses an example that's in everyone's heart, our finances, as a point to say that there is nothing in your life that should come before your relationship with God. He's digging at a heart issue." - 13:33

3. "Story after Story, Miracle after Miracle, we see Jesus's service to us and to his people through the power of God. Even the disciples get their own personal experience with Jesus. Jesus tells them to get on a boat and to go to the other side and I love how Jesus gives them the end of the story in the beginning." - 27:30

4. "When the storm comes, we forget everything that Jesus had promised us. What's Jesus doing on this storm? He's sleeping. Just like Jesus to be asleep during the worst time in my life. But then he calms the storm and the disciples get a personal revelation of who Jesus is in the middle of their crisis." - 28:50

5. "In the beginning, the word already existed. The word was with God and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him and nothing was created except through him. The word gave life to everything that was created and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in darkness and the Darkness can never extinguish it." - 47:34