Marty Sloan – Living the Dream

Who is Jesus and why it matters – Jesus Ministry –

Who He ministered to and how He did it

4 /28/10 HT PM

Luke 6:27-31 NLT

Luke 6:27

“But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you.

Luke 6:28

Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.

Luke 6:29

If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also.

Luke 6:30

Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away from you, don’t try to get them back.

Luke 6:31

Do to others as you would like them to do to you. NLT

Tonight we continue our search of the people that Jesus ministered to.

Key Observations;

1. We will interact with the same sort of people that Jesus did – people are people ☺

2. We must minister like He did

3. The outcomes must be the same for them

The people that Jesus ministered to:

Quick review from last week –

1. Woman caught in the act of adultery -

John 8:7

So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”

John 8:8

And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.

John 8:9

Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

John 8:10

When Jesus had raised Himself up  and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”

John 8:11

She said, “No one, Lord.”

And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” NKJV

Contrast briefly between Jesus and the religious leaders

Christ Religion

Cared Criticized

Connected Condemned

Directed Distracted

Restraint Retaliation

I left you with the thought that Jesus qualified as the one without sin, He could have stoned, if He did not we sure should not!

2. Women at the well

John 4:7 NKJV

A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”

John 4:8

For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

John 4:9

Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

John 4:10

Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

John 4:11

The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?

John 4:12

Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”

John 4:13

Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,

John 4:14

but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

John 4:15

The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”

John 4:16

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

John 4:17

The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”

Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’

John 4:18

for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”

View this exchange as a series of object lessons…

• Removal of Thirst

Shift from the natural to the supernatural – this is really our life journey. You can live at the well, if it’s the wrong well you will always leave and return thirsty!

This woman had spent her life trying to meet her thirst. Yet her journey from place to place only left her with the marks of her past.

Society is seeking and searching for fulfillment, society lives to fulfill its natural thirst.

Matthew 5:6 NKJV

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

For they shall be filled.

• Replenish with fulfillment

Drink of the wells of Christ – seek the things that fulfill not just fill (food analogy)

John 4:31 NKJV

In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”

John 4:32

But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”

John 4:33

Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?”

John 4:34

Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.

• Refresh the world

John 4:28 NKJV

The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men,

John 4:29

“Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”

Questions;

Have you met “the Christ”?

Does the city know about it?

How would these two ladies fair in the present church culture?

3. Women with the issue of blood

Luke 8:43

Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any,

Luke 8:44

came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped.

Luke 8:45

And Jesus said, “Who touched Me?”

When all denied it, Peter ◙ and those with him said, “Master, the multitudes throng and press You, ◙ and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’”

Luke 8:46

But Jesus said, “Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me.”

Luke 8:47

Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately.

Luke 8:48

And He said to her, “Daughter, ◙ be of good cheer; your faith has made you well. Go in peace.” NKJV

Notice that even with the push of the crowd around Christ – He was sensitive to the need of another.

Observations;

• The broken reach out gently (they may not use a bullhorn or stop sign)

• The broken walk crawl where the whole walk

• The broken fear social and Spiritual rejection

• The broken can be changed by Christ

• The whole can overlook the broken

Back to our opening verse – it seems that Christ simple reached out to people and treated them as we wanted to be treated… Luke 6:31 Do to others as you would like them to do to you. NLT

The power of Compassion;

Matthew 9:35

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease ◙ among the people.

Matthew 9:36

But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were ◙ weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.

Matthew 9:37

Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

Matthew 9:38

Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” NKJV

Closing thoughts;

• Crowding sees others as insignificant

• Complaining sees others as nuisance

• Condemning sees others as unchangeable

• Criticizing sees others the problem

• Compassion sees another as ones self

Lord- Help us to see others as you see them, help us to practice restraint, regard and redemption as you have modeled.