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3/25/13

Radical Jesus


I want to tell you about the most radical person that has ever lived!  Jesus, He did things that were completely unheard of in His day!

·         He questioned the rulers of the Jewish faith when no one dared to question what they said or did!
·         Jesus rebuked the scribes and Pharisees. These men were legal experts.
Scribes wrote up documents- like contracts for marriage, loans, the sale of land, or the buying of houses.  Pharisees tried to keep their traditions in place. 
·         Jesus performed miracles on the Sabbath. 

John 5: 1-11 The Healing at the Pool

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] [b] One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.


·         His disciples (the men who followed Him) did not fast and even ate without washing their hands.  While the Pharisees did not eat until they had poured water over their cupped hands because it was required by their traditional law. So what Jesus did was considered offensive & wrong. Jesus wasn't worried about washing their hands because He was their cleanser & could heal them from any sickness or disease.
·         He threw people out of the temple for selling things in Gods house. 

Matthew 21: 12 &13 Jesus at the Temple

12 Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’[a] but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’


Jesus wasn't just being radical for the sake of being different or drawing attention to Him. He wanted people to stop following traditions & instead be led by their love for God. Traditions are good but can distract us from what God wants us to do.
We are to be radicals like Jesus but that does not mean we are to be ridiculous, rebellious or uncontrolled.

Jesus also gave several examples of how we are to do this by submitting to those in authority, and keeping the peace whenever possible.
  • ·         Jesus was a radical; but he was also fully committed to doing God’s will.  He was a servant to his followers, as well as a leader. 
  • ·         We are taught by Jesus to submit to those in authority, namely our parents, church leaders, and the government.  We are to obey man’s law except when it conflicts with God’s law.

I want to encourage you to reevaluate what your life is being led by & make whatever changes are necessary to be led by your love for God even more.  That’s the path to being a true radical follower of Christ.   

Let me give you some ideas of ways to increase your radical following of Jesus:
1.      Spend time in prayer daily & ask Jesus to help make you more like Him.
2.      Read the Bible so that you know how Jesus was & don’t do anything that doesn't agree with what it says.
3.      Share Jesus with others in a bold and radical way.