Hey, can we have a discussion about Jesus?

Welcome to the Simple Christian podcast, I’m Dr. Ty, your host, and this is volume two talking about, well, Jesus.

This is a Christian podcast right? So, maybe we kind of should. Plus, even though I wasn’t planning on doing this right now, God seems to have really put it on me to have this discussion about Jesus.

I think that we miss the mark every once in a while when we look at Jesus’ life. Okay, my apologies. I’m not going to assume that you do. I miss the mark sometimes when I look at Jesus’ life.

And the bible talks a lot about when Jesus died, when he was crucified, when he was scourged or whipped to within an inch of his life; carrying the cross, the whole nine yards.

we see movies like the Passion of the Christ, it’s a big thing about Jesus dying for our sins and us being covered with the blood of Jesus.

I’m sure new Christians think that’s kind of gross and yeah, I understand that. It’s one of those things that’s kind of difficult to understand in the beginning. But I think what I miss, or don’t think about as much about Jesus’ life is that; yeah, he died for our sins and he was raised from the dead.

And he guaranteed us a place in Heaven just by being a Christian.

Romans 10:9 –  If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

So we are saved just by that. And by those three days Jesus saved our souls.

But he spent three days dying for us and he spent three years showing us how to live. His ministry was three years long. Some people think it was longer because he is Jesus, the son of God. We think about his entire life when he was a child and when he went to the temple.

But his actual ministry didn’t start until he was baptized by John. From that time until the time that he sacrificed his life for us was three years and he spent those three years showing us how to live.

In the world, quite often, it’s stab the person in front of you in the back and walk over them up the ladder to success.

But Jesus told us when someone does stab you in the back, you forgive them and let them walk over you. Because that ladder to success doesn’t lead anywhere; it’s an empty ladder. It doesn’t go anywhere, it doesn’t get you to heaven. You might get some more money in the short term, but in the long term people will see the kind of person that you are and they won’t trust you.

That’s why Jesus said that the meek will inherit the earth and the sermon on the Mount is famous and it covers three chapters in the book of Matthew, starting with chapter five through seven.

It opens up with the beatitudes.

opened his mouth, starting in Matthew 5:2, and taught them saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” What is a person who is poor in spirit? It’s a person who understands that their pride has gotten them nowhere.

“Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.” Who is a person who mourns? It’s a person who’s caring for the family of a person who has died or caring for a person who has died.

“Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” I’ve already talked about that.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied.” There’s a lot of unrighteousness in this world.

“Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.” Merciful. Think of that the next time you’re driving down the road and someone cuts you off. Kind of tough to be merciful in those situations, isn’t it? I’m not big on tailgaters. And so I my blood pressure goes up every time somebody tailgates me. I was also an accident where someone hit me from behind, so that might be part of it as well. But it’s tough for me to be merciful in times like that.

“Blessed are the pure in heart. For they shall see God.” My heart is not pure. My heart has never been pure, I don’t think. I am so glad that Jesus died for my sins because he will give me a pure heart when I reach heaven.

Blessed are the peacemakers. They shall be called Sons of God.”

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

And it’s wild, especially in America and I’m in Washington state. Washington state, from what I’ve been told, is the least churched state in the entire United States. And a lot of Christians are kind of becoming persecuted lately, especially with this COVID stuff.

They’ve been forcing to shut down churches and a lot of other venues. And I understand a bit because COVID is new and even though it’s been a year since it came out and we know now that it’s not really a pandemic because people aren’t dying like they said we would. Some people are still dying. Older people especially are more likely to die from COVID than the flu. And it’s something that we need to be careful about.

But it’s definitely not something that we need to be shutting down our country for.

Persecution for righteousness sake. I think we miss that sometimes too because that says persecution for Jesus’ sake, persecution for God’s sake. Not persecution when our personal beliefs are being trampled upon.

I have some personal beliefs and sometimes I feel persecuted when people don’t agree with them. But that has nothing to do with the Bible or with Jesus.

But what I like about the beatitudes is not that he necessarily taught people each of these, but that he lived each of these. He spent three years showing us how to live for God. After the beatitudes, he talks about salt and light, talking about how we’re the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its taste it can’t be restored. There’s no way to bring salt back.

Luckily, we being the salt of life for Jesus and for God, we can be restored. But real salt can’t. And he talks about us being a light. Jesus was the light of the world. When his ministry started, people called him the Messiah and Hosanna and the King of the Jews.

They wanted him to be like worldly kings, to be a conqueror, to stop the persecution of the Israelites. But he knew and other people didn’t understand that his kingdom wasn’t in this world, his kingdom was Heaven and he wasn’t here to rule over people. He was here to show people the road to heaven, the way to get to his kingdom.

That’s why he spent three years showing us how to live and ,I for one, I miss that mark a lot. It’s something that I struggle with on a daily basis, but it’s also something that I know I’ll never completely get right.

But I do enjoy trying to get it right, if that makes sense. Jesus talks a lot about sin as well, but he doesn’t really call it sin. He says things like in:

Matthew 5:27-28 “You’ve heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery within his heart.”

Also Matthew 5:21,22 “You’ve heard that it was said of those of old: “You shall not murder and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.” But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council and whoever says, “you fool” will be liable to the hell of fire.

So he talks about not just sinning like murdering somebody, he’s talking about If you have murder in your heart, if you have hate and anger in your heart, it’s already there. You’re already missing the mark of God. And that’s part of what he taught us during his three years of life.

When Peter cut the ear off of one of the men (Luke 22), when they were coming to take Jesus away, Jesus stopped Peter and healed the man’s ear, because Jesus knew that fighting wasn’t the answer.

In fact, there are so many places in the Bible, well, you see Jesus running away from a fight.

They hide him away when people are coming after him, several times. There were even times when God stepped in and confused people so Jesus could get away.

In fact, the only time I can think of (and forgive me if I’m wrong) that Jesus actually fought people was when he was in the temple and they were selling the doves and there were money changers in there.

There was basically was a marketplace where it was supposed to be the temple and he got so upset that he fashioned a whip, and started whipping the people and overturning the tables and saying, “this is supposed to be a house of God, that you’ve turned it into a den of thieves,” (Matthew 21:13).

That was righteous anger, Anger for God’s sake; not anger for our own sake.

And that’s about the only time that anger is really allowable, as far as God is concerned. So the next time you think about Jesus and how he died for our sins, take some time to think about how he lived, how he showed us a righteous path.

Hey, thank you for listening to the Simple Christian podcast. This is volume two. I’d really like to know what you think of this volume, so please leave a comment at the bottom.

Thanks and have a great day!

• Dr. ty Belknap