Typical Jesus

This is THE day that our Lord has made, let us all choose to joy in it and anticipate the treasures hidden therein.

This is one of the ways of our great God, He hides treasures in the mundane to give His people an opportunity to find the Divine riches in all things.

One of the reasons that the majority of people rejected Jesus as the Savior, the Messiah, the Christ was because of His humanity. In fact, it is the same reasons that many reject the supernatural today, because this world has successfully submerged people into the depths of carnality and, “only human,” ways of thinking. An example of this is readily apparent for any who are paying attention to the information streaming out from our broken world today.

From “their” perspective… the sky is falling!

• The SCOTUS is about to make murder (abortion) illegal again
• Their fraudulent leader is being exposed by, “2,000 Mules,” (a documentary annotating the American coup in 2020… as a side note, we will be having a watch party this Saturday night @ 7p at the church)
• Wheels off inflation that is raging unstoppably and forebodingly
• Wars and rumors of wars that increase by the day
• Sickness, disease, and plagues rampaging and increasing as trumpeted by every medical false-prophet
• The conservatives are walloping the leftists in every election contest
• Their tyrant heroes (Zelensky, Soros, Trudeau, Lucifer) are all being stripped, embarrassed, and dis-empowered
• The Main-Stream-Media monarchy is being beheaded and defunded by We The People searching for REAL truth
• The world’s population is beginning to revolt against oppression and fascism through the cry of Liberty and Freedom
• The Authentic and Hell-destroying Church of our ruling King is trimming the fat, getting lean and strong, and is starting to rise to her rightful position of disciplining the nations and the governments of this world!

From “our” perspective… weeeeeee! Great Awakening is dawning!

After the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ on the third day, the Gospels take a very interesting turn. I would encourage you to look at all the post-resurrection encounters and occurrences under the umbrella of The Finished Work of the Cross. The “Road to Emmaus” walk of discipleship is literally one of my personal favorites, and go-to’s, in the New Testament. Here were two disciples (not measly believers, not church-i-ans, not pew-warmers… but willing-to-die-for-their-allegiance-to-Christ kind of guys) lacking direction, purpose, and, generally, in a state of mental despair, out trudging through the day; illustrating how easy it is to fall back on an old way of life and thinking. To have context of my last statement, you will need to read and meditate on that instance (Luke 24:13-35). The awesome part is that Jesus walks right into their carnal, depressed ignorance and impacts them with the Word of God and New Covenant thinking. He spends most of one of His precious remaining days getting two of His peeps to screw their heads and hearts on right. Typical Jesus, walking into our muck and showing us the huge reality of salvation.

Here is another massively influential moment that can give us some insight for our advancement into this Great Awakening:

John 21:15-19
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

I obviously cannot unpack all the stupendously powerful revelations here. So, I would like for y’all to see these three different exhortations of the recently risen Lord, to one of His chief leaders, for the purpose of advancing the Kingdom in a seemingly devastated world of permeating darkness. The parallels to that moment and ours are too numerous to count, yet a few need to be illuminated:

1. It looked like, to the believers, that their hope had been dashed to a million pieces at the excruciation and unjust death of their Savior, Who was to rule and reign in His prophetic Kingdom on earth. Just like today, they wanted Jesus to make everything rainbows, butterflies, and pixie dust.
2. The disciples were generally without direction, in despair, and doubting even the most foundational truths that Jesus had repetitively declared and illustrated over and over for three and a half years. Just like today, millions of folks unaware of their Divine destiny just trudging through the day.
3. They were in dire fear for their own lives from a potential Roman arrest and/or the Sanhedrin (the governmental body of the Jews) coming to capture them in the same way that Jesus was publicly and unjustly humiliated. Just like today, persecution and prosecution awaits those who are not a good little comrade following the butt of the lemming in front of them off of a societal cliff.

Jesus, in typical fashion, serves His guys a hand cooked breakfast on the beach… right in the middle of their infantile misery… and then pulls Peter out of his selfishness through love, rebuke, and exhortation.

Jesus asked three times (the same number of Peter’s denials) if Peter loved Him. Ouch. This is normal for the heart of God when He shows up in our whiney, self-inflicted pity-party. He just asked a simple, yet powerful, question about the reality of our relationship with Him. Jesus does not get into the drama, the excuses, the emotional immaturity, or the faithlessness of our problems. He just brings things back to simple and relational truths.

Then, He gives three directives that are important for us to consider in today’s context of going into a world changing opportunity similar to what Peter was being presented.

Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep.

Lambs are young and/or immature sheep. Sheep are mature or fully grown. Notice that one of the reasons that Peter was in a personal funk was because his focus was on himself. Anyone focused on themselves is a mess no matter how wonderful they think they are. Jesus brought him back to a healthy mentality of loving Jesus and serving others.

Also, there is a progression that Peter had to embrace in order to grow out of his funk.

First, feed the young ones. This would be akin to giving the, “milk,” of the Word of God to, “babes,” in Christ. Or, in other words, find some young believers and start discipling them in the simple truths of the Kingdom. (Evangelism and teaching)

Next, get engaged and involved with the lives and culture of the people that belong to God so that they can have a healthy environment to mature in. “Tend,” them in such a way that they are safe and capable of growing up into the Kingdom. (Healthy Church Culture)

Lastly, personally develop your own faith, revelation, and relationship with Jesus and His Word to the place that you can help disciple even the older and more mature believers. (Raising up, “spiritual sons,” to go into the ministry and the work of the Kingdom)

When we focus on these premises, the insignificant “bad news” of the day-to-day prophets of doom will become laughable to us. We will be in authoritative control of our feelings and emotions. We will be exercising Divine soul control. And we will be effecting and impacting the world around us for Christ!

Let’s go and do likewise.

I love you deeply!
Steve