Jump Start # 2833

Acts 10:38 “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with Him.”

Have you seen the series, “Chosen”? It’s an independent set of films about Jesus. And, I must admit I am most often not a fan of religious movies. I don’t like the inaccuracies, the liberties taken, the way the actors act and the settings. Just don’t like them much. I sat down to watch the “Chosen,” thinking this will be another one that I don’t like. But, amazing to me, I really enjoyed the series. The characters grow on you quickly. The settings seem real. The actor playing Jesus does a great job. There are a few things here and there that could have been more accurate, but overall, it sure beats most that I have seen in a long, long time.

One of things I truly like about the series “Chosen,” is a side of Jesus that we don’t consider much. We can make Jesus rather empty of emotions and feelings. The human side of Jesus really comes out in those shows. Jesus is laughing. Jesus is smiling. Jesus is kind and humble. And, especially, when He heals people, the show portrays Jesus smiling. He is glad to make lives better.

Our verse today, taken from Peter’s conversation with Cornelius, reveals a common thought that people knew about Jesus. He went about doing good. Even a Roman soldier like Cornelius would have known that. Word about the good that Jesus was doing spread far and wide. When the Lord entered small villages, the crowds were already gathered, waiting for Him. So many people. So many needs. Jesus would have to find ways to get away, but He always came back.

Our Gospels do not tell us that Jesus smiled when He healed people, but it’s not a stretch to believe that. He knew what He was doing. Someone who had never had sight in their life, was now given sight. He saw what the sky looked like. He saw what others looked like. How excited that person would be. How that must have made Jesus smile. Or, someone who has been unable to walk for a long time, now gets up, and leaps away, rejoicing. How that must have made Jesus smile. Or, the tears of sorrow, turned into the sunshine of happiness as a family member is brought back to life. How Jesus must have smiled.

Luke 15 tells us that the angels in Heaven rejoice when a sinner repents. Some how the angels in Heaven were aware of what happened. It seems that all of Heaven must have been smiling.

Here are a few of my thoughts about the smiling Jesus:

First, when a young, tender heart, lovingly prays to the Lord and thanks the Lord for the food he is about to eat. That sweet little heart names every person at the table. He thanks the Lord for butterflies, rainbows and sunshine. He thanks the Lord for chocolate milk and peanut butter and grapes. We adults smile, hearing such sweet expressions. Surely the Lord smiles.

Second, when two stubborn people who have hurt each other, finally extend grace and hug each other in love, the Lord must smile. Words were said. Feelings were hurt. Bad attitudes arose. They avoided each other. They ignored each other. They gossiped about each other. The tension ran thick. Months and months of this continued on, until one day, they decided to end the feud. Families rejoiced. The church rejoiced. Surely, the Lord smiles. This is what ought to happen.

Third, a preacher stands before a crowded audience on Sunday morning. He pours his heart out as he pleads with people to come to know the Lord. All week this preacher has thought and thought about what’s the best way to reach these people. He has prayed to the Lord. And, weary as the preacher is at the end of the day, the Lord must surely smile because His Gospel had been poured out into the listening hearts of so many.

Fourth, a couple takes a young college student out for dinner after services. The college student doesn’t have much money and the couple not only buys the dinner, but slides a couple of gift cards across the table for the student. It’s not much but it sure makes the day for the college kid. Other times, this couple has filled the gas tank for others. They have taken meals to many people through the years. This is just a simple couple doing what everyone ought to do. The joy, the help and the love that this couple extends to so many has encouraged and helped that congregation. If Heaven notices a cup of cold water given, then surely the Lord smiles at such times. This is the way things ought to be done.

Finally, when the Lord calls home one of His faithful ones, He must surely smile. I think about what my sweet dad must have seen when he first opened his eyes on the other side. I want to think that he not only smiled, but that the Lord was smiling at him. I like the think the Lord said, “Welcome home.”

Our Lord is good. And from good hearts comes goodness. You’ll find good deeds right next to a good heart. That’s just the way the Lord is. And, that just needs to be the way that we are. And, the Lord smiles!

Roger

Jump Start # 2009

Acts 10:38 “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him”

Our verse today are Peter’s words to the Roman soldier Cornelius. Peter was called to speak to this gentile who was a worshipper of God and a friend to the Jewish community. Among the things Peter says about Jesus is that “He went about doing good.”

Peter could pull many events from his memory about this. He had seen Jesus doing good. When the synagogue official’s young daughter was dying Jesus went. She died, but before the eyes of her parents, and Peter, James and John, Jesus commanded the girl to arise and she did. Hope, life and joy was restored.

Peter could remember the day that it was getting late and a large multitude was hungry. The disciples suggested sending them home. Jesus commanded that they sit in groups of fifty and one hundred. He then multiplied a poor boy’s snack to feed more than 5,000 people. The people were satisfied. Good was done.

Peter could remember the time an angry Jewish crowd brought a woman into the temple who had been caught in the very act of adultery. A very embarrassing situation. The leaders were demanding her death. Jesus wrote something in the dirt and said that those who were without sin cast the first stone. The crowd left humiliated. Jesus with the woman, told her that He did not condemn her but that she should sin no more. A life was saved. Jesus did good.

Peter could remember the long journey to Jerusalem for the final time. Lepers were cured on the way. Jesus went to the home of Zacchaeus and included this tax collector among the people of God.

Nearly every page of our Gospels and for Peter, a mind filled with so many memories, of the good that Jesus did. The bent over woman. The woman with the issue of blood. The demon possessed. The blind. Lives were made better because of Jesus. Satan was on the run because of Jesus. Multitudes believed because of Jesus.

There is a link and a bridge that we ought to see here. If we are cut from the same cloth and are conformed to the image of Jesus, shouldn’t we be a people who go about doing good? Shouldn’t people know us for our good deeds? In Titus, we are reminded to be zealous for good deeds. The Galatians were told, as we have opportunity let us do good to all people, especially the household of faith.

Doing good. Is that how you and I are known? Is that what we are about? Do we point lives to Christ? Do we help restore hope and joy? Do we make lives better? Are we making a difference? I was watching a college basketball game the other day. There were so many time outs because the coaches were fussing about rules that the game became slow and tedious. The refs were looking at video replays. They were explaining things to the coaches. I finally gave up watching. It was too slow for me. Just play the game. Some are like this in life. They spend so much time in the huddle discussing how best to do this and that, nothing ever gets done. We can be known as a people who are always arguing about the rules. We can be known as a people who are long on talk and short on doing.

I’ve known many in my life who stood in the Lord’s shadows of doing good. The list of things that they did and the number of people that they helped was so long that they even forgot some of the things that they did. They’d see a church family in a restaurant, and they made sure to pay the bill for the other family. They’d help a college kid with his expenses. They’d fill a teenager’s car up with gas. They’d bring groceries to the home of a family that just moved into the area. They’d sit with someone in the surgery waiting room. They made sure that a older neighbor’s driveway was cleared of snow. They’d give books to young preachers. On and on and on the list continues. They went about doing just what Jesus did, doing good.

A person tends to remember someone who has done good for them., especially when it wasn’t expected. The world is full of those who complain, those who demand and those who take. Finding those special few who go about doing good is very unique, except it ought to be the norm among God’s people. There is an old thought that rings true, you must show that you care before someone will listen to what you say. Doing good is one of the best ways to show that you care.

All of this comes down to what we see in the mirror. What good are we doing? We can talk a good story. We can have great ideas. But are we going about doing good? Are we making a difference in people’s lives. Some have ready excuses. It’s expensive to do good. It is. Filing a guys gas tank up costs. Buying groceries or paying for a family’s meal costs. But isn’t that one reason why we have been blessed? We have so we can help. You don’t have to bankrupt the farm to do good. You can do what you can.

Others quickly proclaim, ‘But some will take advantage of you.’ They might. You may have to put borders up on some and even stop some good. Jesus stopped feeding the multitudes. Some went home. Some didn’t. Not everyone will take advantage of you.

Some will boast, “No one ever did that stuff to me.” Maybe not, but don’t you wish they did? That’s the golden rule right there. And still, there is not one of us Christians who has not been helped along the way by another Christian. We all have. Every one of us. The good you do may be just the think that someone needs in their faith and in their heart to keep going. It’s more than food or gas or a ticket to a game or a gift card, it’s showing that you thought of them and you cared. That’s what really matters. That’s the real difference.

How did Jesus build that base of followers? Have you ever thought about that. No website. No Facebook. No positive feed back for others to read. No pamphlets handed out. No business cards. No videos. Jesus went about doing good and the word spread. People are hungry for good, especially when it comes in their direction. Luke 12 tells us that there were so many thousands that they were stepping on one another. The feeding of the 5,000—why were there so many? They wanted to see Jesus. The crippled man who was lowered through the roof, that happened because the house Jesus was teaching in was packed. There was no room on the inside. Crowds—massive crowds, because Jesus was doing good.

Touching lives and making a difference—it makes us wonder if we have forgotten that.

Roger

Jump Start # 1738

Acts 10:38 “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

Our verse today comes from Peter’s opening statements to Cornelius, the famous centurion who became the first Gentile convert to Christianity. And in a simple summation of the life of Christ Peter reveals that:

• God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit
• God worked power through Jesus
• God was with Jesus
• Jesus healed all who were oppressed by the devil
• Jesus went about doing good

What isn’t mentioned here in this verse, which is most important to the life of Christ, is that He died on the cross for our sins and was raised to reign forever in Heaven. That was still to come in Peter’s words. There is something simple yet very profound in the thought, “He went about doing good.”

First, Jesus went about. He wasn’t stationary. He didn’t have a headquarters and people made appointments to come to see Him. Jesus was in Jerusalem, but he was also in villages of Galilee. He traveled to Samaria. He was even in the Gentile regions beyond Tyre and Sidon. On the sea, on the hillside, in synagogues, in homes, in the Temple—reading the Gospels, we find our Lord on the move, often. He went about. He went to the people. He went to where they were. As news about Him spread, crowds gathered. They filled a house so full that four men carrying a crippled friend could not get in. The feeding of the multitudes numbered 5,000 men, not counting women and children. The number may have been upwards to 20,000 people fed. Seeing Jesus in a boat, along the shore, crowds raced to the place where he was headed. They lined the streets so thick, that little Zacchaeus, had to climb a tree just to get a glimpse of the passing Jesus. Luke reports that so many thousands gathered, that they were stepping on each other. It’s hard to imagine all the events in the Gospels from the beginning wedding in Cana to the cross in Calvary cover just three years. Three years isn’t very long. It takes longer to finish high school. He went about. He was busy. He did this without a personal secretary to keep his schedule straight. He did this without drivers, travel agents, and people who booked His next appearance. So often, on these journeys, as Jesus was traveling from place to the next, He healed people along the way. Even on the journey to Jerusalem, to be crucified, He healed the ten lepers.

Second, Jesus went about doing good. He left people better than He found them. For many, it was physical healings. The miracles proved that Jesus was the Christ, but for so many of the people, the miracles gave life back to the people. The crippled walked. The blind saw. The deaf could hear. The demons were cast out. The lepers were cured. The dead were raised. Incurable diseases. Conditions that had plagued some for decades were changed. The quality of life was made better for hundreds and hundreds of people. News about Him spread. The crowds that gathered were full of sick, crippled and demon possessed people. The audience looked more like an emergency waiting room, that the crowd at church. People did all that they could to get the attention of Jesus. Some stood as He passed by and shouted at Him. Some begged. Some fell at His feet pleading for Him to come and heal. Some were so desperate, that they tore up a roof and lowered a crippled friend down in front of Jesus. He did good. He was popular because of this very fact.

Peter probably wasn’t including this in his statement, but not only did Jesus do good, but He taught good. What He said was fresh, different and full of hope. He forgave. He showed prophecies fulfilled. He included the outcast and the forgotten. The hero of His stories were not war veterans, but Samaritans and faithful servants. His words lifted spirits. His words challenged and led to changed behavior. His words were personal and specific.

Not only did He do good, and teach good, but He, Himself, was good. He was perfect. He was without sin. The negative things said about Him, were made up. There was nothing negative that would stick. Jesus was good. He was the definition of good. He thought good of others. He illustrated good. Even when angry, He never crossed the line and did wrong. He never had to apologize. He never had to back down from something He said. He never spoke out of turn. He never cussed. He never gossiped. He never trashed anyone, even though many deserved it. He forgave His crucifers. He gave Peter chance after chance, when Peter’s little faith kept failing. Be like Jesus, is the theme of the N.T. Be holy as He is holy, found in Peter. Be imitators of Him, found in Corinthians. Be conformed to His image, found in Romans. The absolute perfect person is Jesus. He is good.

Third, the outcome of Jesus’s doing good, is that we have learned to become good. He didn’t just do good, He showed us how we can become good and in turn we do good to others. We can’t heal as He did, but we can teach, influence, show and lead people to Jesus. We are good because He was and is good. He has changed us. Gone are the self centered, stingy ways that we walked in. We no longer feel better than others. Christ has changed us. We find ourselves caring for others. We find ourselves being patient and kind with others. We rejoice with good news. We hate evil. We see the ugliness of sin. We stand for something and with those who love the Lord. We have become good because Jesus is good. We have learned to love, as He loved. We have learned to pursue unity instead of being a radical and a rebel. We have come to love truth and righteousness. Our language has changed. Our attitudes have gotten better. Our families have benefited. We have become trustworthy, honest and righteous. None of this would have been possible without Jesus. And now, we find ourselves, telling family and others, about this Jesus. He changed our lives for the better and we want the world to taste the goodness of God.

One simple statement, He went about doing good. If that is how we are remembered, we will have done well.

Roger