The First Step to Breakthrough, Part 2

How did Jesus – are you ready for this? – how did Jesus teach His disciples to experience breakthrough?

If you’re taking notes, the first question was, “What is breakthrough?” The second question was, “Is there a biblical pattern of breakthrough?” And I think we’ve demonstrated that. The third question: “How did Jesus teach the disciples to experience and be agents of breakthrough?

It’s twofold: “Repent and believe the good news!” Repent, metanoia – it means, “with your mind.” Have a change of mind. Think differently about God, think differently about yourself, and start thinking about it the way God thinks about it, and “believe the good news.” Believe that God’s for you. Believe that He loves you. And live out of the freedom and the reality. The Gospel is not: what can I do for God? How can I earn His favor?

The Gospel is good news. This is what God has already done for you. Receive it; believe it. Let it fill you up, and then, out of thanksgiving and love, express that same kind of love to others.

Now, with that said, how did He teach His disciples? He wanted to teach these good, Jewish, religious boys that He didn’t come to change the culture; He came for people to move out of their stuck religion, and the wickedness of the day, and to have a relationship with the living God.

And so, He announced what it was, and then, as you look at the book of Mark, what I want you to see: His goodness. His goodness. His kindness.

So, as you pick it up, notice, okay, He’s going to announce the good news. Skip down, if you will, to verse 21: “Then He went to Capernaum, and the Sabbath came, and Jesus went into the synagogue and He began to teach. And the people were amazed at His teaching, because He taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the Law. And there was a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit. ‘What do you want to do with me?’”

The first thing He does is eradicate evil. So, there’s some authentication. “Whoa! Who is this guy?”

The next thing He does – as you skim, look at verse 29 – He goes over to Peter’s mother-in-law’s house, and she’s sick. And people are wondering, Wow, who is this guy? And He heals her.

And then, if you skim down a little bit after that, what you find is, there’s a real buzz here, and He spends almost all night, and the whole town comes out. He casts out demons and heals. And people are coming from everywhere.

And then, He gets up real early the next morning to pray, to stay focused, and the disciples say, “Jesus, last night, You were a super hit. Everyone’s talking about You. This is going to be awesome. Come on back.” And He says, “No, no, no, no. There are many other villages and places I need to go.” So, He teaches the disciples it can’t be about them, it can’t be about us, it can’t be about just now – it’s fulfilling what God wants.

And so, notice, then, He begins a preaching tour, and in chapter 2, what’s He do? He heals a paralytic. And then, in the end of 2 and the early part of 3, He calls the disciples, deals with some theological issues.

And then, chapter 3, notice: “He went into a synagogue again, and there was a man with a shriveled hand.” His popularity is mushrooming. And now, the Pharisees are jealous. And what’s He do? He speaks – doesn’t even touch him. He speaks, and the man is healed. Afterwards, the Pharisees, the religious people, are plotting how to kill Him.

Then, the crowds follow Jesus. Skip down, if you will, verse 9 of chapter 3. It says, “Because of the crowds He told the disciples to have a small boat ready for Him, to keep the people from crowding Him. For He had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch Him.” What’s the message? It’s a new preacher!

And you say to yourself, What’s He doing? He just keeps healing people and healing people, and touching people and touching people that no one thinks is worth anything! It’s good news! This isn’t measuring up. He just keeps loving people. And if you’re one of His early Jewish boys, disciples, you’re going, This is really different.

And did you notice? It’s not about how many services they have, or how many buildings they’re building. What is it? It’s His power. The world today doesn’t need to see more church buildings or more services, or our numbers increase, for that sake. They need to see the power of God in you, and in me, in our homes, in our work, in our neighborhood, unleashing the power that does good. That’s the Gospel. And that’s what He wants to teach them.

Well, notice, He appoints the Twelve, and they come with Him. And then, chapter 4, He begins to do some teaching, which is always very important, so He teaches them about the kingdom. And then, after He teaches them about the kingdom, He wants them to understand that they are agents to bring breakthrough in the lives of people. And we don’t have time to go into depth, but I encourage you to read it on your own.

Chapter 4, He teaches about the kingdom, about trusting God, about the soil – it’s responding to God’s Word, and He talks about how it grows with the mustard seed and how, if we don’t respond to the truth that we get, we don’t get more truth. And He talks about how it’s a supernatural thing that happens, and, in and of itself, it will grow. It’s the power of God’s Word as the Holy Spirit uses it, in the hearts of people that are open and willing.

And then, He says, “Let’s go to the other side.” Because what He wants to do now – He has helped them see, “This is My message. It’s good news.” But now, He wants them to understand, “This is who I really am. And I’m not only good, but I’m powerful enough to handle anything that ever comes up, any time, with anyone.” And so, He says, “Let’s go to the other side.” And these professional fishermen get into an impossible storm, and what’s He do? You know the story? He’s at peace; He’s asleep. They cry out, He speaks, and what happens? Whoo! It’s a breakthrough. And they go, “Who is this guy?”

And then they go to the other side, and there’s not just a guy with demons. If you read it later today, very carefully, it’s a demoniac that has a legion of demons in him, and no one – in other words, it’s impossible – no one can control this guy. So, anybody have demons in your life? I don’t mean necessarily literal ones, but I mean, we talk about, you know, the demons from our past, our family of origin, my addiction. And there may be some literal ones. And what’s He do? He speaks, and he’s healed. And He wants them to know that it really happened, so the demons get into pigs, so, visually, you can see, this is reality.

And then, they go back across, and as He’s going, He hears there’s a little girl that’s very, very sick. And as He’s walking, there’s a woman who’s in an impossible situation. I mean, the author makes it very clear. She’s used up all her money. She’s sought all the doctors she can find. Nothing works. But she believes there’s goodness in this Man – she’s heard; she’s seen. If I could just touch Him – and she does. Tchoo! The goodness of God is so great that Jesus, unaware, when someone draws near to the goodness of God by faith – supernatural things happen. She’s healed on the spot.

And did you notice what He said to her? “Daughter, your” – what? – “made you well”? “Your faith.” But she got to the point that George Müller talked about: I’m bankrupt. There’s nothing I can do. If this Jesus can’t help me, if I don’t get a breakthrough, there’s no hope.

And then, He’s on the way to help the little girl. The servants come: “It’s too late; don’t bother Him. She’s dead.” And this might be worth putting your nose in – Mark chapter 5: “Ignoring” – verse 36 – “what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, ‘Don't be afraid; just believe.’”

Are you starting to get the Gospel? It’s a declaration. It’s an announcement. How is He teaching these disciples? What’s He doing? He’s demonstrating the goodness and the love of God.

And then, if you would care to skip over to chapter 6 – the beginning – because hearing about it and watching it never makes it real in your life. So, chapter 6, He says, “Boys, going to send you on an expedition, but I want you to depend on Me, and I want you to experience what you’ve seen. So, no cloaks, no second bags, no money, no walking sticks. I want you to go to these villages – I’m on a preaching tour – and I want you to heal the sick, I want you to cast out demons, and I want you to announce the kingdom.”

And they go do it, and God works through them! Whoa! And they come back to Him, and they’re exhausted, and they’re excited. They’re now agents of breakthrough! “Lord, the demons – they listened to us! People were healed!” He says, “Well, let’s go get a break.”

And they go to get a break, and as they arrive, oh, my lands – He makes Mick Jagger, and every rock star in the entire world, seem like nothing, because the crowds swell and swell and swell and swell and swell. And He has compassion on them.

And so, in chapter 6, here’s – don’t miss this. In chapter 6, the disciples, after He teaches them, “By this time,” – verse 35 – “it was late in the day, and the disciples came to Him. In this remote place, he said, ‘It's already very late. Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy for themselves something to eat.’” Notice Jesus’ response: “But He answered them, ‘You give them something to eat.’”

Now, I don’t know about you, but they’ve seen some miracles. God’s used them to perform some miracles. There have been some breakthroughs. There are five thousand – and the way they counted in those days were five thousand men – who knows how many people. Okay, listen very carefully; this is what we lost. Jesus expects you to do impossible things. Period. God expects to do impossible things in you and through you.

And if you go on and read the story, you will say, “Well, how does it happen?” What’s He do? He said, “Well, what have you got? I’m not asking you to do something with what you don’t have. What have you got? Bring it to Me. Trust Me. And when you understand, by faith, how good I am, and you’re willing to obey what I’ve already said, I will show up in ways that declare and reveal My glory and My goodness to people that have no idea that I love them.” That’s what breakthrough’s about.

Now, when I read things like that, I get very encouraged, but I also begin to ask questions like Number four: Is there an historical precedent that breakthrough can happen in our day? Right? In other words, this is great. This is great stuff. It’s Bible stuff. But does God still do that?

And I would say, if we could do a quick run of Church history – of which we won’t – what I’d say is, you would see that the book of Acts is a picture of breakthrough. And there will be many things that we’ll learn about what these very ordinary people did, where God, through a clear vision of people who believed what He said, who are very ordinary, transformed, by about the next three hundred years, the entire world.

And during that time, you’ll find guys like Athanasius, who stood his ground when all of Christianity was moving in a way apart from the truth, and there was a breakthrough. And you’ll see times where, then, corruption happens in the Church, and they get connected in this “Holy Roman Empire,” and everything that Jesus said and all that He taught and who we were to be, little by little by little, would begin to just be so far away from what was happening in the life of the Church.

And so, He would raise up a Saint Francis over here, and a group of monks over here, and a Teresa of Ávila here, and then a Jan Hus – a Czech priest, who said, “Wait a second! Man, it’s the Bible.” And then, a Luther, a Calvin, and a Zwingli, and a reformation would be birthed.

And they did it imperfectly, and they did some wonderful things, and then they did some really terrible things in the midst of it, because God doesn’t use perfect people, who have it all together, to do breakthroughs. They have blind spots.

And then, after that reformation, you have people like Tyndale, who said, “You know something? We’ve got this printing press. I’m going to start making Bibles in English that people can get,” and Hus made a copy, and, you know, breakthroughs are expensive, really expensive. They burned Hus at the stake as a heretic.

Probably the greatest breakthrough that happened in the last five hundred years was Martin Luther, and in my journey here, I was led very clearly by God to study Martin Luther, because the parallels of what was happening in 1512 through about 1560 are very akin to what’s happening in our world today.

So, the first question is, so, what is this idea of breakthrough? Is there a pattern in Scripture? Yes. How did Jesus teach His disciples? Is there historical precedent? And I mean, it’s happening through history, and after Luther, it goes on, and we could talk about, then the next generation of them, and what Kerry did, and then Wesley and Whitefield and Edwards in America, and then the next generation of Moody and Spurgeon, and then the end of the century, Aimee McPherson at the turn of the century, and Billy Sunday, and then, all of a sudden, a war and Dawson Trotman and Billy Graham and Bill Bright – Regular, ordinary people, like you and me, to whom God becomes so real and so good, they live out of what He’s already done for them, and they believe it to the point that they begin to look at other people as objects of God’s love and mercy, and they begin to treat and think and act that way, and live with a joy because they don’t have to measure up. You already measure up. That’s the Gospel.

Final question – maybe the most important one: How do you experience the first step of breakthrough? And I’m going to tell you, it is so easy to say, and so hard to experience. Are you ready? It’s to believe that God is good. Not intellectually – I mean believe. It’s to believe that He is willing. It’s to embrace that God wants to do, not something hard or difficult, but the impossible in you and through you. That’s His will.

If you were one of His disciples, He would turn to you, He would look you right in the eye, and say, “You feed them.”

And you go, “What?” “You reach your neighborhood.” “What?” “You be the breakthrough at work.” “What?” “You take the first step in the reconciliation of this marriage.” “What?” “You break that addiction and bring other people with you.” “What?” It’s what He expects. And all the power is available to do it.

How? I don’t want you to intellectually be, “Oh, yeah. When I was there, it seemed like God really loved me, and He cares about me, and I’m valued and I’m forgiven, and His Spirit lives in me, and I have gifts, and He’s got a plan for my life. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah” – and then, Monday morning.

I want you to read this over, and I want you to put your name in it, because I want you not to memorize this, or say, “God will love me more if I get this down.”

This passage was not written just to read at funerals. This is one of the most graphic pictures of God’s goodness in all the Bible. And when you personalize it – I mean, just in preparing for this, I just read, “The LORD is Chip’s Shepherd, Chip lacks nothing. He makes Chip lie down in green pastures, He leads Chip beside quiet waters.” Wow. “He refreshes Chip’s soul. He guides Chip along the right paths for His name’s sake. Even though Chip walks through the darkest valley, Chip will fear no evil, for You are with Chip; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort Chip. You prepare a table for Chip in the presence of Chip’s enemies. You anoint Chip’s head with oil; Chip’s cup will overflow. Surely goodness and love will follow Chip” – not somebody, somewhere, sometime – me! – “all the days of Chip’s life, and Chip” – talk about promise – “will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

I want you, this week, to write your name in there, and I want you just to read it over. And by the way, as you’re reading, if you slip into praising God, it’s okay. If you – if problems about, “Oh, you mean God would really give me direction, or help me get through this?” And you start thinking, and thoughts come to your mind that solve problems, that’s okay. If you renew your mind – next seven days – okay? – at least a couple times a week, your intellectual assent that God is good will move from your head into your heart, and you will begin to see differently, and you will begin the first step for breakthrough.