There’s a story in the New Testament. Jesus had sent his disciples across the Sea of Galilee while He sent a crowd away and to pray alone. However, during their crossing there was a storm that made it difficult for the disciples. In the midst of this storm the disciples saw a figure walking on the water towards them.

They were freaked out, even to the point they thought it was a ghost. As it turns out it was Jesus walking on water. The disciples weren’t convinced it was Jesus. They knew Jesus was powerful, but walking on water in the midst of a storm seemed unlikely. Jesus commanded them “don’t be afraid, take courage”

Peter was pretty doubtful “Lord, if it really is you, let me come out on the water with you.” Jesus said “come.” Peter climbed out of the boat and onto the water.

As Peter walked on the water towards Jesus he got freaked out by the storm. He started to sink. He yelled “Lord, save me!” Jesus reached out and saved Peter and they both walked back to the boat.

Yes Jesus can walk on water. This story is found in Matthew, Mark and John.

Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-56, John 6:16-34

When Jesus entered the temple He saw something wrong. He saw men inside selling animals for sacrifice. Some theologians will tell you that Jesus was upset because there were animals in a place of worship. Other Biblical scholars will assert that it was because the sellers were overcharging for the animals.

In my opinion, Jesus was upset by the hearts of those in the market. They had come to the house of God to make money. It’s easy to look at them and say “what wickedness.” No doubt it’s easy for us to judge.

These men in the market are not so different from us. Sure they were trying to make a profit, but what about our building fundraisers and donation campaigns? They sold the blood of goats and doves to people who wanted to make a sacrifice, and we sell books and videos to those wanting to “Experience God.”

We like to think that we are very different from these “money changers” but many of them were struggling financially. Some of them were trying to provide for their family. Just like us. Some of that money no doubt went to “support the local priest.”

If it’s true they were just trying to make ends meet, why did Jesus respond the way that He did? Jesus said “My house is to be a house of prayer, but you have made it a gathering place for thieves.” A thief has his heart set on money. The love of money is always on his mind. These men had their hearts turned towards the things of this world.

The focus of their hearts ought to have been on God. Their hearts should have been engaged in prayer. Their hearts were only seeing the things of this world. They had made idols in the temple of God.

What’s worse, they made the house of prayer into a marketplace. By doing this they redirected the focus of the worship from prayer to making a sacrifice. By selling the blood of bulls and goats they declared that “your prayers are not enough, you need sacrifice”. They were robbing God of real worship and humility, and selling His people cheap sacrifice.

The Western Church has a responsibility to keep the market place out of the Church. She must never detract from worship with fundraising. Her heart must be set on things above. The church should be funded completely by offerings and tithes of her members.

I realize this is not a popular view, but it is an honest one.

Can Jesus visit you in a dream? If Jesus is God and has all power, then of course Jesus can visit you in a dream. God is no stranger to using dreams to communicate to people in the Bible. Jesus has the capacity of visiting you in a dream.

I’ve heard of people being visited by Jesus in a dream. You hear stories of these dreams leading people of false religions to Jesus. There have been increasing reports of Jesus dreams in muslim communities.

I will not condemn these. If they truly bear good fruit then they must be from God. The disciples wanted to stop a certain man from preaching because they didn’t know who he was. Jesus told them “do not stop him from preaching, whoever is not against you is for you.” If these dreams are bringing people to a genuine faith and relationship with Jesus how could anyone condemn them?

However, and this is a big one, Jesus will only testify to the truth (John 18:37). If Jesus did come to you in a dream you would need to be able to verify His identity by comparing your dream to the truth of scripture.

Jesus would never tell you something contrary to what God has revealed in the Bible. If Jesus visited you in a dream and told you to kill anyone it would clearly be against the law of God. If dream Jesus gave you stock market advice or told you to sleep with someone outside of marriage, you can bet that’s not Jesus. Jesus won’t teach you to be selfish or sinful.

Yes, Jesus can visit you in a dream. However, if you’re a follower of Jesus you have His presence in the Bible and in the Spirit living within you. God has spoken in many ways throughout time. But the greatest revelation of God is the Gospel of Jesus found in the Bible. If you want to know Jesus, you don’t have to have a dream. You can know Him personally through prayer and fellowship in His word.

This is a fun question, eh? I don’t know which of you are out there googling this, but I commend your curiosity! The simple answer is, yes. It appears that Jesus can.

After His crucifiction and ressurection Jesus appeared to a number of His followers. He gave them a commission to go out and make disciples. Then the Bible says that Jesus ascended to heaven. Which is quite an exit!

Acts 1:9-12

I have no hope at all to answer such a question in one chapter. It is something I could write about for the rest of my life, even for a thousand years, and barely scratch the surface of.

However, it is one of the fundamental questions of Christianity. I will give you an answer, but know that it is not the fullest answer to this question.

Jesus died on the cross in order that anyone who believes on Him would be reconciled to God, and begin to know God and enjoy Him forever.

We are both victims and perpetrators of broken law. We are enslaved by evil and malevalence. But, we are also guilty of being evil. Because of these two realities we cannot know God.
This evil keeps us from knowing and being with God. What’s more, it makes us hurt everyone, and everything around us. There is no part of God’s Earth that has not experienced pain and corruption because of men. Mankind is sick. If God had wiped the earth clean of mankind it would only cleanse the Earth of our sickness.

But God had compassion on us. He sent Jesus to take the evil of mankind in His own body (even though He had no sin). When Jesus was on the cross God destroyed all evil. Then Jesus by the power of God, was made alive again.

Jesus now gives anyone, who is fully persuaded by His death and ressurection, the ability to be free from evil. By trusting that Jesus’ death was enough to destroy our sin we can be free from sin. Being persuaded that Jesus came back to life, we are given new life in relationship with God.

Jesus didn’t just die to make you good. Jesus died so that you would be given new life! Life so that you may know and enjoy God forever.

Could Jesus sin? If Jesus was really God could He be tempted to do something evil? Did Jesus have this human experience of temptation?

This is a good question, but it is an easy one to answer! Hebrews 4:15 “ we have a High Priest who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Could Jesus be tempted? Not only could he have been tempted, He was tempted! Here’s the kicker, he experienced all temptation and never sinned!

Have you ever been tempted with something you hate? Maybe you’re in a committed relationship and you’re tempted to cheat on your spouse. Maybe you are tempted to cheat at work to get ahead? Lying to get yourself out of trouble, stealing pens or paper from work. Maybe you’ve been tempted to take your own life to escape pain.

Jesus felt all of these temptations. It is comforting to me that Jesus was tempted. He has sympathy for me. He has sympathy for you. Jesus cares for you. You have a high priest who understands your temptation and has overcome them all!

In Hebrews it says Jesus now stands before God defending us, because he knows how hard it is. God has mercy for those who repent of their sin and follow Him.

“If you put a bad apple in a barrel of good apples the rest will soon rot.” I remember reading this when I was a teenager. It was some literature talking about peer pressure or something akin to that. It makes sense I suppose, keep your bad things away from your good things. Keep your dead things away from things that are alive. This was the parenting standard for most of the 90’s and for much of the early 2000’s. Bad kids corrupt good kids. In some way it created an unhealthy protection. Like too much hand sanitizer, kills all the germs and your immune system suffers because it doesn’t develope resistance.
It’s a good thing that Jesus didn’t share this sentiment. He was a good apple in a barrel full of rotten apples. He was something very alive in a dead world. When Jesus arrived on earth it became impossible for Him to avoid relationship with flawed humanity. However, I think this question of ‘who did Jesus hang out with?’ is one of those questions that people use to justify their behaviors. Like a teenager hanging out with a rough crowd in school tells his mom “Jesus was a friend of sinners, so am I.” Or like the progressive Christian 20 something “Jesus was sitting with sinners drinking wine and having a good time.”
There are two stark differences between Jesus sitting with sinners and publicans; and a college student going to a kegger. The difference is the leadership of the Spirit and presence of righteousness. Jesus went to these places because He was led by the Spirit. There was an intentionality to Jesus going to these parties the publicans threw. He didn’t go to “have a good time.” He went to change their lives. He didn’t go to dance, get drunk and play games. He went to heal the sick. He saw the people partying as sick people in need of a healer. If you are making the argument that Jesus was there to have a good time you’ll be hard pressed to find scripture proving that. What you will find in scripture is Jesus teaching and changing lives around Him.
Jesus did hang out with sinners, so that they might experience freedom from sin. Jesus did hang out with those who were dead inside in order to give them life.

I was talking with a young man, an unbeliever on his way to becoming an engineer. “If God exists then why doesn’t he do miracles?” This question about miracles is a very important question. Before I answer it we must establish this point: Miracles are primarily demonstrated towards God’s people in order for their faith to be increased.

Many people even in the Christian faith believe miracles are to demonstrate the power of God towards the lost world. This is not the case. God demonstrates His power towards His children. When the doubting world seeks a sign to know whether God is real they are faced with this statement from Jesus “A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Matthew 16:4

For the lost world God has demonstrated His power through the resurrection of Jesus. This is the sign by which people can know He’s real. If there were any other sign by which lost people could know God is real it would become an idol! A good example of this is nature. All of creation declares the glory of God and yet men glorify the created thing more than the Creator.

Jesus worked many miracles. Primarily all of His miracles were for those who already believed in Jesus and were seeking His compassion and kindness. They were not (Primarily) for those asking Jesus to prove to them that He was the Messiah. There are a couple of instances where seemingly Jesus is proving His anointing, but even these are demonstrated on behalf of believers.

Jesus worked miracles to identify Himself to those who already believed and for the physical well being of those who followed Him. If you’re seeking a sign to know whether Jesus is the Son of God, or whether God is real look at the death and resurrection of Jesus.

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In the past when cloth was dyed by hand there were cities that specialized in cloth making. Around the city there would be large vats filled with dyes. Clean cloth was submerged in these vats until their color had been changed. This process is still practiced around the world. The process of dipping the cloth into dye, in the ancient Greek world, would be commonly referred to as Baptizo. This is was a common term when Jesus walked the earth.

Jewish people had started to make it a habit to do ritual washings before meals and ceremonies. Although there are some Levitical laws for sick people and priests washing, these laws of ritual washing were mostly traditional. God had not commanded the Israelite nation to make a ritual of washing. However, a man named John (a cousin of Jesus) came to Israel and started to preach repentance. He called people to forsake the things of this world and seek God’s kingdom.

When people began to seek the kingdom of God and produced fruit of God changing them, John would take them to the river and baptize them. All those who were baptized, just like clean cloth dipped in a vat of dye, changed the way people saw them. By being dipped in the water of the Jordan river they were making a claim of affiliation with this “Kingdom of God”.

Then one day Jesus came to where John was baptizing. John saw his own need to be identified with Jesus, but Jesus told John that it would be beautiful in the sight of God for John to baptize Him instead. As John dipped Jesus into the Jordan river, Jesus was affiliating Himself with the Kingdom of God. Jesus came out of the water and the Spirit of God descended on Jesus in the bodily form of a dove. The voice of God declared “You are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased.” With the Baptism waters rushing over Him, the Spirit of God landing upon Him and the voice of God speaking over Him, Jesus had been identified as the son of God before John and all those around.

Baptism is about being identified publicly with the Kingdom of God. It is a declaration of sorts that God has complete control over your life. That’s exactly why Jesus was baptized. There’s also a part of baptism that is a declaration to ourselves, there is the voice of God spoken over all those who believe and are baptized, that “you are my beloved son or daughter, and I am pleased in you.”

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While on the cross Jesus said seven different things. These have come to be known as the seven last words on the cross. They have become an important part of meditation for many believer’s. They serve to remind us of the mortality, humanity and the divinity of Jesus.

1. “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
2. One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” 
3. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
4. “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
5. “I am thirsty.”
6. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.”
7. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

Each of these sayings are important and profound. From Jesus’ heart of forgiveness, His care and love for His mother, His mercy on the humble and then the most human expression of rejection. I would love to cover each of these individually, but I think they ought to be meditated upon for yourself. When I think upon these sayings, I see a very human Jesus experiencing very human pain. When I am at my lowest point there is an overwhelming feeling that God has forsaken me – Jesus has truly experienced the lowest of human pain. Yet, in this darkest hour He pleads for us, giving us forgiveness and life. Approaching God on our behalf to negotiate mercy. These are the sayings of Jesus on the cross, and they are vastly important.

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