Jesus had a simple message.

Jesus had a pretty simple message.

"There is only One God."

"He made you, loves you, has a purpose for you which involves worshipping Him and glorifying Him in what you were made to do."

"You can't experience any of that because of the sin problem in your being."

"Only I can free you from that sin problem.  I am that One true God."

"You need to make a personal response to this offer that involves repentance."

Last week we looked at Mark 1:16 - 2:12 and noticed that while Jesus is out proclaiming His Word, there are at least three hurdles that always seem to come against His simple message.

The first is the Enemie's attempts to distract and control the conversation.  We see that a lot these days.  Opponents or resistors of the Gospel want to distract from the simple message by changing the focus with distracting and misleading questions.  It happened to Jesus too.  The solution:  Steal back the focus by directing with the right questions and keep control of the conversation.  You can always do this with respect and recognition of the other issues brought up, to be addressed later.

The second is the immaturity of believers who want to focus on the works over the message.  There will always be those who get excited about how God does what He does and will try to highlight the work over the message.  This often leads to some type of standard or subjective process that is presented as a mandatory experience.  It happened to Jesus too.  The Solution:  Let the Bible interpret experience and point back to the message.  Experiences are real, obviously!  But sometimes, we can interpret those experiences the wrong way - which leads to a distortion or manipulation of the Masters original message.  Keep it simple.  Stick with what He said.

The third hurdle is simply the work of "elite" christians who attempt to make grace and forgiveness something that is dispensed through their methods or their disciplined traditions.  Jesus encountered this almost every step of His journey.  His solution was His message.  His mode of delivery was one of unprecedented authority wrapped in a package of unprecedented humility.

It is amazing to note that when we look for spiritual leaders in this day and age, we are always looking for those who look like the worlds best business leaders.  I truly wonder if most churches would hire Jesus today.  I wonder what kind of hurdles He would experience if He came into my local Church fellowship?   I wonder what hurdles He would experience if He came to yours.

Jesus had a pretty simple message.  Question is, do we simply want Jesus and His message?

With you for His glory,