Beth Moore - This Jesus - Part 5
Luke chapter 1 and just leave it wide open, and I want you to have out your notes because I'm gonna ask you about six points we have so far, and then I'm going to give you the seventh point, and we are gonna begin closing this thing up.
Number one is "THIS JESUS..." That's why we better have this Jesus and not that Jesus. That Jesus cannot save us. It's this Jesus who saves.
Number two: "THIS JESUS STILL CALLS, CLOAKS, AND GIFTS WOMEN TO SERVE HIM". You've gotta get that in the marrow of your bones. You have been called to serve the Christ.
Number three: "THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE SPIRIT OF THIS SAME JESUS". He will always work consistently with Christ Jesus and not contrary to his Word.
Number four is this: "THIS JESUS IS THE JESUS OF SCRIPTURE". That was what Paul was all about, over and over. Peter did the same thing in his message in Acts chapter 2 with the Holy Spirit just filling him. He told that this one who had been prophesied, this is what Joel was talking about, and he quotes that portion of Scripture. Over and over, they did the same thing. This is not someone out of nowhere. This is the Jesus that was foretold to us for century upon century. This Jesus is the Jesus of Scripture.
Number five, important point: "THIS JESUS..." Has it gotten anybody into trouble in this room? Oh yes, oh yes. This Jesus does not mind occasionally getting us into a little bit of trouble.
Number six is what? "THIS JESUS IS INTIMATELY MADE KNOWN IN SUFFERING". Somehow, that which was stuck to the page suddenly jumps up and comes into life. When you know, good and well, that that which happened to you should have absolutely taken you out. Listen, I can't tell you what confidence comes in knowing Jesus when you have made it through something that should have killed you. Like, I have lots of doubts about a lot of things, but whether or not Jesus Christ is real, is not one of them, because I know this. I would be dead somewhere in some ditch or in some drunken state somewhere trying to drink myself to death. Anybody know what I'm... I would have destroyed myself, I had that in me. And I'm not saying that's you, but I had this self-destructive bent that if there were four multiple choice answers that I could choose from of what I was going to do, I would choose D for the most destructive. Anybody?
I come from a background of childhood sexual abuse, and let me tell you something, I'm not using that as an excuse for all my poor decisions, but I will tell you, frankly, it did not help. I did not have any boundaries from the beginning. If I had a Webster's Dictionary, the word "No" would not have even been in it. It would have just jumped onto the next word, because I did not have any boundaries. I felt totally paralyzed, placed in certain situations, totally powerless, and then Jesus, I was empowered to become somebody new, somebody that I cannot be, somebody that I'm incapable of being. Just the pure perseverance that it takes to make it in Christ to the finish line. Ladies, that's coming from the Holy Spirit of this Christ, intimately made known in suffering.
And this is the seventh one and our final one: "THIS JESUS," everybody say, "This Jesus," "IS MOST GLARINGLY WITNESSED IN THE GOSPELS". How do we know this Jesus from that Jesus? How do we know what's the same Jesus and what is a different Jesus altogether? What is of Jesus? What is his way? What is the way that he operated in life? What is the way he was repelled or compelled in a situation? What seemed to make him draw back and what made him draw forward? What are his ways that he would make his ways known to us, that we would recognize this Jesus and, in doing so, that this Jesus would become recognizable in us? Make no mistake, this Jesus is all over Scripture.
I want it remind you of what we heard earlier in the session out of Luke 24 when Jesus joined the two on the road and it says that, "Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets," so that's the first five, that's the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, the books of the law, "and all the Prophets, Jesus interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures". So, he's all over it, through the full-spread, Genesis to Revelation. But if you and I want to know this Jesus most glaringly, in the most concentrated works in Scripture, where we're watching him operate in relationships with people, where we're getting to see him, feet on the ground, the soles of human flesh on the ground, his prints in the Judean soil. If we wanna say that Jesus, the most beautiful, glaring places that we can find him will be in the Gospels.
Many, many years ago, my very first Bible study venture, the absolute, to this day, the ride of my life, where I fell so in love with Jesus on the pages of Scripture that I knew I was just destroyed for anything else. I knew then and I don't mean that it would have had to have been vocationally, professionally. I would never have dreamed at that time that I would have ever been able to make any kind of living out of it. I just knew for the rest of my life I will study the Word of God. I mean, I will get in it and I will, as we would say back where I come from, I would wallow in that thing, I would roll around in it, that I would be in that thing for the rest of my life because I had never found anything more brilliant and fascinating and it was the Old Testament tabernacle, the very first Bible study that I ever wrote. And it just absolutely mesmerized me.
And so, I was learning so much typology, things that's foreshadowing, and I loved what one theologian said. I don't even remember who the theologian is, but I have thought about it ten thousands of times since then. He likened the four Gospels to the four walls in the Holy of Holies, you know, that was a cube. It was built in a square of even sides. And so, his point was that it's there in the Gospels that we most intimately know the One we are anchored to behind the veil, who wore a veil of flesh, according to Hebrews chapter 10 when his literal body was torn and he was crucified. It likens it to the veil, that he's the One, if we want to know him, to come, I mean, and just like, stare into those Gospels, just, and throughout the course of our life that all the things that we study, we wanna study all of 'em.
We wanna study the patriarchs in Genesis, we wanna study the narrative of Exodus and see what happens with the children of Israel in their wanderings and see about the tabernacle and we wanna go on to the times of Joshua and watch the conquest and the faith that it took to go into a land of giants. We wanna see the king come on the page of Scripture, the man after God's own heart, the David that Christ would be described as the Son of David, the Holy Son of God, the unmatched, unrivaled, one and only Son of God. We wanna see all of it. We wanna see the prophets, we wanna see the warnings. We wanna be able to make comparisons to the times that we live in, and see the prophetic warnings and the prophetic blessings that are there on the pages of books like Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, all the rest. We wanna study the Epistles, all the letters of Paul, we wanna study 1 and 2 Peter. We wanna study Jude. We wanna study the book of James which somehow has disappeared from many people's Bibles, but I will try not to run after that tangent.
We are called to study Revelation. He says, "Those who study it will receive a blessing". We want all of it. We want all of it. But throughout the course of our lifetimes, let's always return whether it's once a year to a different Gospel, however regularly it takes to be reminded that there's that Jesus but then there's this one, this one, that we stare into the pages of the Gospels and we watch the Word that was made flesh dwelling among us, Matthew, Mark, the shortest, but believed to be perhaps the first written of the Gospels. Luke, written by the beloved physician. These three synoptics, and then there's the Gospel of John, the one who saw himself as the beloved of Christ. If you and I really wanna watch Jesus, live out a life of obedience to God wearing the same kind of skin and walking on the same kind of bones with muscular wrappings around those bones like ours, where we go most concentratedly is to the Gospels.
If you and I really wanna watch Jesus live out a life of obedience to God wearing the same kind of skin and walking on the same kind of bones with muscular wrappings around those bones like ours, where we go most concentratedly is to the Gospels. I got to tell you something. Only a couple of times in all of these years, so I'd say that I have been speaking the first time I remember anything I would call formally speaking at an event, I was 25 years old and I was well with child with my youngest, Melissa. So I remember very, very specifically when it began. And then, so I began speaking at that time. So many, many years have come and gone since then. Twenty-two years of Living Proof Live and in all these years I can only remember a couple of times I have ever challenged a group with homework. Maybe there's another one, but I'm only remembering two times.
But I'm gonna tell you something, there's about to be a third time and that's right here. And I gotta tell you, one of the things we are so longing for from him is that he will do something very particular with a group, that he will have picked us out for something, that you will know. No, we had what he did. He came here to very specifically do a certain thing, and so this is the challenge that he put on me for you, but let me tell you what it's all about. It's a very, very simple thing. I wanted to keep it simple. In fact, it's simple enough where this should not interrupt any in-depth Bible study that you're doing, any plan that you have for starting in September with a new in-depth study. This does not displace any of that. All of this can be done at the same time. But a very, very simple uncomplicated title that I wanna give to the homework that I'm about to challenge you with and I'm simply calling it The Luke Challenge.
The Luke Challenge. Here's what it's going to consist of. I am challenging you, based on what I believe God stirred in my heart to bring to you. This is the way I felt like he called me to end this today. I am challenging you to take a 30-day period, a 30-day period. It can start at any point so you could start it the first day of August, you could start it tomorrow, you could start it today. You could start it in a month. You can start it anytime, but from whatever point you start, that you would commit that 30 days later, and that gives you a little bit of, a few grace days, about 6 grace days, that you will have read carefully through every single chapter of Luke, one chapter a day. One chapter a day within a 30-day period. There are 24 chapters there.
And this is what you would do. You would then, all you need, these are your materials. All you need is a Bible. You need a pen and you need the very simplest spiral notebook. And what I will challenge you to do is that you will simply write in magic marker like I did right here, "In Search of This Jesus". Everybody see what I'm talking about? "In Search of This Jesus". All in the world you will be doing is that you will open it up to your first page. You're gonna write down, I love to make a commitment so if it were me, I'd be writing down the date that I'm beginning my 30-day Luke Challenge, and then I would write down, very simply, "Luke 1", right here and I would take my pen.
This is what you will be challenged to do. Is that you'll just like, take down, you get to freestyle. I don't care if you don't, I know people that learn by making illustrations. They'll draw out something that they see on the Scriptures. Whatever it is that draws you into the Scripture. All we've got is two ground rules. This is it. But these two ground rules are really, really important. And the first instruction is pray. Is pray. That every time you open, so, Luke chapter 1, what you're gonna do every single day when you open up your next chapter of Luke, you're going to ask God for two specific things. You are going to ask him according to Luke chapter 24, do you remember where we saw it? That he will open your mind to understand the Scriptures. You're gonna pray that every time.
Every time you start to get in the Word, you are gonna ask him, "Open my mind according to Luke chapter 24, Lord," and I'll give you the verse so that you will have it. In 45, Luke 24:45, it says that "Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures". You're gonna ask him to open your mind to understand the Scriptures. And you're gonna ask him to fill you with his Holy Spirit. Now, we know that the Holy Spirit never leaves us, that once we receive Jesus, his Holy Spirit takes up residency in us and we are sealed till the day of our redemption. So he's never, he's not leaving us. He's not leaving. I mean, we've got a seal on us, and the Lord knows those who are his, he says. And so, he's never, but the Scripture is clear that we can quench him, we can grieve the Holy Spirit.
And so, we can... So, live out of our flesh or our carnality or our disbelief, whatever it may be, that he's quenched in us and we're just living it out like a carnal person, like a mere man or a mere woman as 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and 3 would refer to it. Or we can be filled with the Spirit and the reason why this is so important is because the Holy Spirit inspired the Word. We're asking the Holy Spirit to animate the words. When the Holy Spirit within you, when he is filling you, and you're studying his Word, then do you understand how it's resonating? That the Holy Spirit within you is responding to the Holy Spirit who inspired the Word, and that's when beautiful things happen.
Understanding, when conviction comes, when leadership of the Spirit comes, when he reminds you of what you've been taught. It's just the way to best position ourself to receive from the Word is to ask him, "Fill me with your Holy Spirit. I wanna pour out what is just driving me crazy, what has had me distracted and what I'm asking you. Just fill me with your Holy Spirit". Those two things. The second one is write, W-R-I-T-E, write. This is where you freestyle. You're gonna take notes, I mean, Luke 1. What is it that stands out to you? You're just gonna take notes on it. Specific words, you're gonna do all sorts of things, like you might say to him, "I don't understand what that means," whatever it may be. But here is the ground rule and this is such a beautiful thing, and it's one of the most important parts of the exercise.
Everything you write down you are writing down straight to him. You're not just taking notes. You're saying it to him. Everything that is going down in this journal, you are saying straight to him. "Jesus, I'm noticing in this scene with Simon the Pharisee and the sinful woman in Luke chapter 7, dot, dot, dot. Jesus, I'm noticing that you seem repelled in this situation. You are", that you're talking straight to him. This way, you are entering into a dialog. Jesus is speaking to you through his Word, and you are speaking right back to him, and that is called intimacy, that's relationship. So, everything you're taking down, you're taking down to him. What bewilders you, what confuses you, "Lord, I don't understand what you're doing there. It seems like that you talked down to her," or "Lord, watch how you responded to the Pharisees".
You understand what I'm saying? Everything is in relationship to him. Everything you're writing is straight to him. Your whole objective is to go in search of this Jesus. So, the most important thing you're looking for throughout your time in every single chapter is, "What are you like, Jesus? Reveal yourself to me. I want to know the real you. I want to watch you at work". And listen, if you loved it, then you know what you do next and this is why it's called The Luke Challenge. Go right on and do the same thing. Get a new notebook and go straight into Acts. Or do the same thing again in the exact same notebook if you've got room, because he wrote Acts as well. Anybody got that idea?
So, I just challenge you to return back to this Jesus. If we are being conformed into his likeness, we need to know what he actually looks like. If I'm supposed to be acting like him and responding like him, I need to know what he is actually like, so I just wonder would anybody just be drawn to the pages of Luke's Gospel and see what might happen. I want you to stand to your feet. I wanna tell you something. This same Jesus, this is the same Jesus who turned the water into wine. Anybody wanna say "Amen"?
This is the one who took the kid's lunch and catered an event for thousands. This is the same Jesus who did not hesitate to call it like he saw it. This is the same Jesus who said, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are". This is what I'm talking about. If your Jesus never offends you, you might not have this Jesus. Because this Jesus will get in your business. The same Jesus who said, "Don't be afraid, little flock, because your father delights to give you the kingdom".
This is the same Jesus who could actually be trusted to put his hands on children, to bless them, draw them close to him, and said to his disciples, "Let the children come to me for such is the kingdom of heaven". This is the same Jesus who said to some on that day, "You're gonna say, 'Lord, Lord,' and I'm gonna say, 'Depart from me. I never knew you,'" because you were all about that Jesus and I'm this Jesus. Same Jesus who said to a thief hanging on the next cross, "Today, today, you will be with me in paradise". The same Jesus who ate at the home of a tax collector and a Pharisee. The same Jesus who put his fingers in a man's deaf ears and put his own spit on his mute tongue and commanded him, "Ephphatha! Be opened," and his ears were opened, and his tongue was loosed.
The same Jesus who made the leper clean and made a colossal mess of the temple courtyard, overturning tables, sending pigeons flying. "My house is a house of prayer". The same Jesus who knew all things and also yelled out in the pressing crowd, "Who touched me"? The same Jesus who said, "Neither do I condemn you," also said, "Go, and sin no more".
The same Jesus who walked on water like it was a hardwood floor, this is the same Jesus who has called your name, who has chosen you, who chose you before the foundation of the world, and sought you out. If you have found Jesus anywhere in the course of your life, it is because, girlfriend and guy-friend, you had been found by Jesus first. This is the God who has set his affections upon you, set your life apart to glorify him. He is the same Jesus who will give you a tongue of fire that cannot help but boldly proclaim, "This Christ is both Lord and Messiah". This, girlfriend, this is your Jesus.