JESUS IS IN THE MIDST
SERMON OF THE WEEK #220747-December 02, 2007
There are several times in the New Testament in various situations where you can find the statement that Jesus was in the midst as the center of attention. So the following is a short list of some of those occasions.
JESUS IN THE MIDST OF THE DOCTORS
The first one is in the gospel according to Luke in the second chapter Jesus is in the MIDST of the Doctors in Jerusalem.
Doctor Luke informs us that Mary and Joseph went up every year to Jerusalem at the Feast of the Passover, and when Jesus was twelve years old, he also went up with them to the feast. On the journey back to Nazareth the boy Jesus tarried behind at Jerusalem, and Mary and Joseph knew it not, but supposed Him to be in the company of kinfolk. They were already one day out of Jerusalem, and now have to make a hurried trip back to Jerusalem.
What a horrible feeling for Mary, she had lost the one of whom it was said, “The power of the most High shall overshadow the and the Holy thing that is begotten shall be called the Son of the Most High God, and of His kingdom there shall be no end.” She had lost Jesus.
So they went back to Jerusalem. Now that is always a good place to look for Jesus when you have lost Him, go back to the place where you lost Him. Sometimes Christians feel they are not as involved in the church as they were at one time. They may feel it is just not what it used to be. They feel as though they have lost something. Things are just not what they use to be.
The church at Ephesus had that problem. In Revelation 2 Jesus told the church at Ephesus they had left their first love. The church where Paul wrote about, one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God; the church that heard Paul say, “Put on the whole armor of God,” had lost their first love.
Jesus gave them the answer as to how to regain that feeling of how it used to be. He told them to: “Remember therefore whence thou art fallen, and repent and do the first works.”
So if you notice that it just does not seem the same with the Lord as it once was, go back to where you lost Him and start over again. Follow the example of Mary and Joseph; Go back to Jerusalem.
When they got there they found Him in the MIDST of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. Jesus being in the midst was prophesied by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15, “The Lord thy God shall raise up unto thee a prophet from the MIDST of thee of thy brethren, like unto me; unto Him shall ye hearken.”
The boy Jesus could not understand why they took so long to find Him. He said, “How is it that ye sought Me? Knew ye not that I would be in My Fathers house?” Actually there are a great many things people are searching for in life that could be found in the Father’s house. They found Him in the MIDST.
Jesus should always be in the MIDST in any theological, religious question. He has the answer to any question about salvation, the Christian life style, the Judgment Day, or about Heaven or Hell. Somewhere between the front and back cover, between the statement in Genesis the first chapter verse one, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth; and the last word in Revelation, even so come, Lord Jesus, you will find the answer. So let Jesus be always in the MIDST.
JESUS IN THE MIDST OF TWO OR THREE
Another time when we find Jesus in the MIDST is in Matthew 18:20 Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name; there am I in the MIDST of them.” This statement, there am I in the MIDST of them is one of the proofs of his divinity. Jesus is the only person who can be in two places at one time. He can be with us while gathered together in his name, and in heaven at the right hand of God interceding for us.
Jesus said in the MIDST of two or three. Two or three is the smallest number you can get, any thing less than that would be nobody. Two or three; he did not say two or three preachers, or two or three elders, or two or three deacons, or Sunday School teachers. In fact he did not even say two or three grown ups.
Notice also that he did not say where the meeting took place. He did not say where this was, in a temple, or the barn. The meeting could be anywhere. One man about forty years ago wrote and said he always listens to me in the barn while milking the cows. I asked him why in the barn, and he said when the cows hear you preach they give more milk.
Then remember Jesus said the two or three, or it could be two or three thousand must gather together in his name. In fact Jesus would say later on in John 14, “Whatsoever you shall ask in my name that will I do.” That seems to be a declaration that an ecumenical prayer is null and void.
As far as being in the name, it needs to be observed that when the gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus was preached, the believers were told to: ”Repent ye and be baptized in the NAME of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Remember too, that Jesus said where two or three are gathered together in My name, sounds as if Jesus expects us to gather together in His name. In fact it must be very important to gather together in His name as we read the statement in Hebrew 10:25 where we are exhorted to neglect not the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is, and so much the more as ye see the day drawing nigh.
Then in verses 29-30 the consequences of neglect is to trod underfoot the Son of God, count the blood of the covenant wherewith you were sanctified an unholy thing, and hast done despite to the Spirit of grace. And then verse 31, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” So on the Lord’s Day when we gather together in the Lord’s name, He will be in the MIDST of us.
JESUS IN THE MIDST ON THE CROSS
Again we read how Jesus was in the MIDST on the cross. In John 19 he tells us: “They took Jesus therefore: and He went out bearing the cross for Himself, unto the place called, The Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha: where they crucified Him, and with Him two others, on either side one, and Jesus in the MIDST.”
The Devil thought the cross was the instrument of victory for the kingdom of darkness and what an insult for Jesus to be crucified as a criminal, and between two others who were robbers and murderers. But to Jesus the bearing of the cross was the instrument of victory over the tyranny of death. Jesus had predicted in Matthew 16 when he would build his church, the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it, and here at the crucifixion He used the cross as a battering ram to knock the gates of Hades off its hinges, and the insult of dying in the midst of thieves and robbers turned out as added glory to the cross in the salvation of one of the two who were crucified with Him. In fact the salvation of the one thief was a greater miracle than the breaking of the rocks and the earthquake that took shook the earth at the moment Jesus said: “Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit.”
Jesus did not die between two Apostles, or two prophets, lest there be some that would worship them and share His glory with others. Jesus is the One who died for us, and when He died for us He paid it all. The price He paid covers every sin of any sinner who obeys the gospel; there was not even one sin that remained to be burned off in the imaginary fires of purgatory. Jesus dying in the midst gave the message to humanity: If the thief on the cross could be saved, Jesus can save anybody.
So look at the three crosses again: On one was the Saviour, on one was the sinner saved, and on the other was the sinner damned. Jesus was not slain on the altar in the temple where his blood mingled with the blood of lambs and goats, he was slain on the cross, and his blood mingled with robbers, and murderers.
However the two thieves were not the only transgressors. Paul reminds us in Second Corinthians: “Him who knew no sin, He made to be sin on our behalf; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” Jesus was numbered, not only with the two thieves, but also with us as transgressors, and actually as the worst of transgressors, because on the cross He felt as though He was guilty of every sin we ever committed.
Jesus died in the MIDST numbered with all transgressors, so that we might be numbered among the redeemed on the pages of the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Luke reminds us that Jesus was regarded as such a dangerous character that when a choice had to be made as to whom should be crucified they released Barabbas who was a murderer, and voted to crucify Jesus. The people of the Holy City thought they were safer with a murderer running around loose than Jesus. Evidently Jesus is still regarded today as the most dangerous character on the planet. Prayers must not be prayed in public, or in school in Jesus name. Modern day man is right; as long as Jesus is still here in the MIDST of us; He is still the most dangerous enemy the Devil AND HIS FOLLOWERS has on this planet.
JESUS IN THE MIDST IN JUDGMENT
And now look at Jesus in the midst of a case of Judgment. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman taken in adultery and having set her in the midst, and on the basis of the Law of Moses asked Jesus to pass judgment on her. Jesus told them after writing on the ground, “He that is without sin among you let him cast a stone at her.” He stooped down and wrote with His finger on the round for a second time, and they went out one by one from the eldest of them unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman where she was in the MIDST.
When Jesus asked, “Where are they? Did no man condemn thee?” She said, “No man, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn thee.” People in the 21st century can understand one reason Jesus may have said, neither do I condemn thee, was because there were no witnesses. The witnesses were afraid to testify and slunk away, and there were no plea bargains.
But Jesus also said something else besides neither do I condemn thee, he said, “Go, and sin no more.” Sometimes if the guilty gets off too easy they feel free to do their crime again, so Jesus said, don’t do it again. Don’t do it again, reminds us in principle of a similar statement of Paul regarding Christians who continue in sin after forgiveness when he said in Romans 6:2-3, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. We who have died to sin, how shall live any longer therein?”
In the final Judgment the witnesses will not be able to slink away like the scribes. Revelation 20:11, "And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat upon it, from whose face the heavens and the earth fled away and there was found no room for them."
JESUS IN THE MIDST OF HIS CHURCHES
Now once more we see Jesus in the MIDST of His Churches. In Revelation one we hear John say, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet.”
When John heard the voice of Jesus like a trumpet there was no doubt as to who was speaking. On the day of Pentecost the day the church began the apostle Peter quoted from the second chapter of the prophet Joel, when he says: “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain.” The prophet Isaiah has a word of advice for all preachers when he says: “Lift up your voice as a trumpet and tell my people of their sins, and the house of Jacob of their transgressions.”
When John turned to see the voice that spake unto him he saw Jesus walking in the MIDST OF SEVEN GOLDEN CANLESTICKS. Jesus identified the candlesticks as seven churches. And Jesus is walking in the MIDST of His Churches.
Notice that Jesus symbolizes the seven churches as gold. The Lord knows that gold is important to mankind; they value gold above all else, so he likens His church to gold. The preaching of the word of God today provides thousands a golden opportunity to respond to the message of salvation.
As Jesus walks in the MIDST of the seven churches He is inspecting them, and finds that five out of seven are warned of some very drastic conduct, and need to repent. Some had lost interest in the Lord and the church, some immoral, some guilty of teaching false doctrine; some of pride, and one church that had a big reputation he said, was dead.
If five out of seven churches needed to repent then five out of seven churches need to repent now. I am not saying that all of you church members listening to the program now need to repent, but five out of seven of you do.
Those that did repent were promised such rewards as eating of the tree of life, eating of the hidden manna, receiving the morning star, walking with the Lord in white, and sitting down with Jesus on His throne.
No wonder John said, “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as one dead.” But Jesus laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not; for I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for ever more, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.”
Jesus has two keys, and on the resurrection day, with one key he can unlock every casket, and every grave, and with the other key he can unlock the spirit world and bring both soul and body together for the resurrection of the dead. What a wonderful day for the Christian. In Revelation seven John saw a number that no man can number who had come out of the great tribulation, having washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, and the Lamb that is in the MIDST of the throne shall guide them to the fountains of the water of Life; and then it will be, Christ forever in the MIDST of eternal glory.
