Walk With Me
Christian discussion of biblical topics, and a dose of daily application. Yes the Bible is still relevant, and we find out more and more each day how relevant it has always been.
Walk With Me
Church: A Spiritual Hospital or Hotel? Part 1
Is the church a hotel for the righteous or a hospital for the spiritually needy? Join us on this thought-provoking episode of Walk With Me as we explore this compelling question through biblical references and personal stories. We kick off the episode with heartfelt gratitude for our listeners and a spirited discussion on the church's role, drawing deeply from Jesus' parable in Luke 14:23. By examining Jesus' invitation to all, especially the common people, we highlight how the church serves as a refuge and place of healing for those seeking spiritual renewal.
As we delve further, we challenge the misconception that the church is only for the righteous by drawing parallels between the church and a hospital. Referencing Mark, chapter 2, we illustrate how Jesus' actions show that true healing involves addressing and forgiving sins. Through personal reflections and biblical narratives, we underscore the transformative power of spiritual healing over physical recovery. Tune in to understand how the church's mission is akin to a hospital's—offering guidance, healing, and redemption to those in need.
Hello everybody, welcome to today's episode of Walk With Me. I am your host, jj. It's so good to be here teaching every one of you today. I know I'm a little late. There's no excuse for it, just time got away from me again. Just some other things came up that God is dealing with. God is dealing with. I'm so glad you all are here. I'm so glad that we're still walking on our way to Christ, walking on our way to our heavenly home. So good to have each and every one of you here.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening. Thank you for that. You're liking and sharing. Thank you for all you new YouTube listeners. Thank you so much. Thank you for liking and sharing and even the comments. I thank you for the comments as well. It's all in love. Even if you think it's not in love, it's actually in love. So just thank you all. Thank each and every one of you who will be listening to any other podcast that you've chosen to take a few minutes. God has brought you here and you're listening to the podcast. Thank you all so much. Thank you, and let me just stop right there for a second.
Speaker 1:Just because I say God brought you here, that doesn't mean I'm somebody special. It's important that we keep this in the right way. I'm just a guy with the Bible in my heart. I'm not your pastor and I get the guys sending me questions that are really very personal. I appreciate that trust I do, and of course, when I recognize these questions are personal, they will not go on the broadcast. However long it takes, I'm going to give you an in-depth answer. What God tells me to tell you, it's just going to go right back to you, so I will not come out over the podcast.
Speaker 1:We do have a question today. Well, it was more of a. Is it a question? No, it was more like an argument actually. And you know you get where you have a lot of people who study the Bible for a long time and you know they say one thing and somebody else says another thing and everyone gets offended. Thing and somebody else says another thing and everyone gets offended. And then people we have to go back and look at what the word of god says before we get into that. Let's talk about our sponsors. Two bars the lyricist helped us with music, the bump in the intro, the outro. Thank you so much for exquisite creations. She's gonna be having her website up and running soon, part of our play, but that's okay. God is good, god is great and God is love, and also, god is a consuming fire. You must not get that. So what was the question that turned into a fight?
Speaker 1:The question is what is church? And, for the sake of making it nice and snappy, this will be the title of this episode today. What is church? Is it a hotel or a hospital? Now, if you've been involved in church any length of time, as soon as I said that, you gave yourself one answer or another. You said it back to your speaker One answer or another, it's either a hotel or a hospital.
Speaker 1:Some of you said well, why is it a hotel? Why would it be a hospital? And the person that I was talking to was insisting that church was more like a hotel and not at all like a hospital. But the Bible sort of tells us that the church is actually both, and these two factors were going back and forth. No, it's a hospital, no, it's a hotel. No, it's a hospital. No, it's a hospital. No, it's a hotel, no, it's a hospital. So, and when I waited in there, they, they both. It was like. It was like walking into a family dispute, one brother's arguing with another brother, and then all of a sudden you walk in there and they all argue with you, and so that's exactly what happened. I said, well, basically, the Bible says, oh, it's a hotel and a hospital, but it's a hospital first and we'll talk about it. So now you're saying well, jj, how is it a hospital? Those of you who already said hospital, you guys know. Those of you who already said hospital, you guys know this is more or less walking the road with them. Then it becomes a hotel after the road to the hospital is done. What does that mean?
Speaker 1:Alright, so when Jesus was walking the earth and doing his ministry, he was talking a lot about his church and how he was going to create his church. And there are a lot of parables where Jesus said go and tell so-and-so to come into this house, or go and get these virgins and bring them into the wedding and get yourself ready, and at some point he's talking about the rapture, but before that he's talking about setting up his church, like in Luke 14 and 23. When Jesus is speaking to a parable, the Lord is saying unto the servant Go ye into the highways ahead and compel them to come in that my house may be filled. Now let's back out, because remember now the rules of this podcast either the verse 2 above or the verse 2 below, but we're going to go to the full chapter Now. The reason why Jesus said that was because he had sent out a lot of invitations to come to this wedding, and the wedding was the wedding of God, his bride, to the church, but in this parable it was the Lord, the king, and his bride, but no one was coming. Everyone had excuses, but they couldn't come.
Speaker 1:Something else was more important why Everything? We just had no time and things got in the way. The worries declined and the king got upset. So that's what he said to her Going to the highway we had and tell them to come in. Now let's stop right there and consider who he's telling the servant to go and get now. Remember, all the dignitaries had something to do. All the important. Vip had something to do. Vip had something to do. All of the people who should have been at the door waiting to get in all disappeared. All had something to do.
Speaker 1:So he went out and just grabbed anybody to come in, and he wanted anybody to come in so that house may be built. Now this is where people say, oh okay, anybody to come in to that house made for sale. Now this is where people say, oh okay, well, the church is like a hotel, because the hotel just wants the moves to be full, no matter what you're doing in there, it doesn't matter as long as you pay your money and as long as you're there, the hotel on the path Right. And this was the argument the hotel user was using Well, they just want people to come in, but it's not for the sinner. And he literally said the church was not for the sinner, as well as things go.
Speaker 1:I've always said and this is kind of a new thing I've always said and this is kind of a new thing I've always said the best lies, have a brain of truth, and this is true that the church is not for you to live in sin, but the church is. How do you know what sin is? How do you know how to is, how do you know how to live? How do you know how to establish yourself in these things? So that can't be completely correct, because if the church is not for the sinner, then there's no one in the field, because the righteous already think the two righteous are for the church and the sinner says church is not for me, which is, believe it or not, a lot of excuses that people, when you go out and you witness people, you tell them about the goodness of God, they'll tell you church ain't for me, man. I like the way I'm living and this is where they end up in this sort of category.
Speaker 1:However, there are a lot of scenarios where Jesus talks about sin being related to a physical condition and sin being related to a physical condition and sin being having manifestations as a physical condition and as such. Anytime he got to talking about that, pharisees and the religious wannabes got real upset and this is where they started building their case against him real upset, and this is where they started building their case against him. But let's talk about one particular time that Jesus went really full bore on the fact that sin has a physical component, and this is where we're going to relate the church to the hospital. Alright, now what we're going to do is we're going to look at Mark, chapter 2. And that's going to give us and in Mark chapter 2 it starts off this, and this is this is just one particular time. You can go through a lot of them in the podcast episode, the 46th episode. But let's look at this one, and he's going to heal a person and forgive sin all at the same time.
Speaker 1:Mark, chapter 2, verse 1, and again he entered into the epitum after some days and it was noise that he was in the house. Some people say Capernaum, I say Capernaum, and straightway many were gathered together insomuch that there was no room in the house for them, and not so much as the doors. He preached the word unto them and it came unto him bringing one stick of the so much as the doors. He preached the word Unto them and he came unto them bringing one stick Of the palsy which was worn of four, which means four people were carrying and they carried them on a palanquin and they couldn't come into the press. In other words, there were so many people they couldn't get in and their stock right here. It was so bad that they knew they needed to get this person In to see Jesus. For what A healing. To go to a hospital for what To heal. But it was so bad. The ER was full, the ER was full, everybody in there looking and gawking at all the sick people, and it got so bad that they had to go to the roof.
Speaker 1:They had this big plan. When they went up to the roof and they uncovered the roof where he was Going back to reading now verse 4. And when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay, which is the guy they brought, and Jesus saw their faith. They let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay, which is the guy they brought, and Jesus saw their face. He said unto the sick of the palsy Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. Stop Wait. Did he just say thy sins be forgiven? He didn't say anything about being healed. And this was a. This is a um, this is a big statement coming from Jesus.
Speaker 1:A lot of times, like when we talk about the guy at the, at the uh, at the gate, with the gate, call beautiful, with the, with the water, where the angels came down, we talk about how people just got up and got healed. Will you be made whole? Yes, and take up your bed and walk. Great, this was a lot of uh. You know, this is a lot of the pattern. But here he went differently. He says son, thy sins be forgiven thee and and here we are, the church folks.
Speaker 1:But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, because you know they were all sitting there talking and they're reasoning your heart. So why does this man be blaspheming? Who can forgive sins but God only? And it's always important to note that these guys didn't say this out loud, they didn't have the guts to say it out loud. They had the heart to say it in their hearts. They didn't have the guts to say it out loud, no-transcript, or to say Rise, take up your bed and walk. But you may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins. And he says now to the person who falls in, I say unto thee, arise, take up thy bed and go thy way.
Speaker 1:So after this guy had gotten taken by the ambulance to the ER, the chief doctor says your sins are forgiven and because that was done prior, the healing actually took place. So, yes, and in this aspect, going to see Jesus was like taking the sinner, or like taking the person who was injured, taking the palsy, to the hospital to get his sins taken care of. Yes, you guys, as much as some people will try to tell you, you got to get these sins taken care of. You got to get them forgiven and they're not automatically forgiven, especially when you we'll talk more about that at another time but sins are not automatically forgiven. However, the only way you can get them done is the only place you can get a bullet taken out, and that's going to be at the hospital. Any other way it's not going to be as good as it should be, right.
Speaker 1:And we're not done here because we're going to go back. We're going to look at the fact that when Jesus said to bring all these people into the house, he's not talking about again the ecumenically blessed, the ecclesiastically established. He's talking about people who really need healing, who really need forgiving, who really need newness of life, and so, in this way, the church is the hospital, and we were in the hospital during the ER a couple weeks ago and God taught us a very important lesson and in this scenario, I'm going to keep the identities out of who it was, but we went in there and we let them do their thing and they said oh, you know what? There's nothing we can do for you. I mean, there's nothing we can do. We've done all we can. We're just going to sit here and then we're going to discharge you home.
Speaker 1:And then the person in the hospital we all realized that, hey, you really didn't do anything. Well, yeah, but you know, this place is just to kind of put the bandages on. After that you're kind of on your own, it's outside of our scope. But then how do you get from being in the ER to being admitted to the hospital? Same way, you have to be admitted from that initial being brought to church to get your sins taken care of. And to the family. You actually got to stand up and say something brought to church to get your sins taken care of. And to the family of Christ. You actually got to stand up and say something.
Speaker 1:And in this moment that God taught me that they were not just going to do whatever they wanted. You actually had to say, hey, listen, I don't think we should leave like this. We can't leave the way we came in. We can't go back home in this condition because there's nothing changed. We need this to be changed, we need this to be fixed. So in this scenario, you, in this way, have to have your sins fixed. They've got to be taken care of. They have to be your sins fixed, they've got to be taken care of. They have to be dealt with. That's where the church is, the hospital.
Speaker 1:Now we're not just talking, and I know that some people will go back to some things they see on TV or they've seen on TV or they've seen on social media, where people get touched and they get up out of the wheelchair and this same guy, by the way, this same guy who was saying that church was not a hospital, was saying that he hasn't seen miracles before. He hasn't seen blind people suddenly begin to walk, even the wheelchairs actually get up and start walking around. But let me ask you this, walkers, what's more important? Is it more important that your body is healed or is it more important that your sins are forgiven? Jesus said right here in Mark, chapter 2, the sins were forgiven first, before the healing could take place. Because that is more important you can have in another scripture, jesus said it is better that you enter into heaven maimed than to enter into hell whole. So it don't matter how many times somebody lay hands on you and you know, your blind eyes are opened and you can hear again and you can now walk and get up out of the wheelchair and come out of a coma because somebody laid a car for you. Healing is great.
Speaker 1:Please understand, god still heals. God still heals you physically, but God is more interested in you spiritually, because this thing, this thing that we walk around in right now, this thing is designed now because of sin, because of the sinful nature of the world. This thing that we are now in is corruptible. It will die, it will rot at some point, and there's no amount of of believing, to the contrary, that it won't happen. It will happen. The problem is, is your soul dead inside? And that is the greatest miracle. That is the greatest miracle ever To see someone who was doing all kinds of sinful things.
Speaker 1:And every time we talk about sin, everybody always goes to the S word. But no, it's everything Lying, cheating, just being mean and nasty, all of these things, there are so many. It's not just changing the memory. We're talking about a complete revamping of the person's spirit, the person's soul and the way the person begins to think about it. God will take care of all of that for you, and that is the greater miracle than suddenly being able to stand up out of a wheelchair, because if I walk in, let's just say I'm in a wheelchair, y'all. We'll wrap this up. Let's just say I walk in and I'm the meanest person you want to see. I'm in a wheelchair, matter of fact, I'm in one of those Stephen Hawking style wheelchairs where I can only move based on my mind, power or whatever. And I'm just a mean person. You can't stand me and I lie to you and I steal from you and all of these things.
Speaker 1:And someone you know evangelist, doctor, preacher, bishop, apostle comes in So-and-so, comes in so and so comes in, he prays, he lays hands on me and then suddenly I get up, I can do all the things that everyone else in the congregation, but at the same time I'm still the same mean, nasty, ornery, cheating, stealing, lying, womanizing. You fill in the blanks. What good is that for me? As a matter of fact, wouldn't that actually be worse for me? Because here I am, having seen the power of God in a temporary miracle, because no matter what, y'all all of these things, you can be healed of it and you can never feel that pain again. But at the end of the day you will die. So that is a temporary miracle. So what would be better, to experience that temporary miracle or to experience a permanent miracle to where I now have a wonderful outlook on life. You know, I no longer lie. You can trust me. I won't steal from you, I won't cuss you out just because you made me mad.
Speaker 1:I you know, I talk about God. I just want to learn about God. I just want to be a good person. I want to go to heaven. I speak in tongues, and I mean speaking in tongues. Right, there is just the ultimate miracle this guy does not believe that people still speak in tongues, which, again, that is a lot of some of what was going on in his and this was the Bible scholar. But this is a lot of what's going on. But and I'm not here to really bash him, I'm here to answer a question. The greatest miracle is the saving of your soul, saving of my soul, setting us on that path, keeping us out of physical destruction.
Speaker 1:If you think that saving someone from sin is not a church hospital situation, look at how many people have been saved from drugs and alcohol. Now you overdo those on any of those things. You have a one-way trip eventually to the morgue, and where's the first place? They take you Just to the hospital, when at some point prior to this, you had already also been invited to church. Someone you knew was talking to you about God.
Speaker 1:You ran across a podcast, maybe like this one, where someone was talking about God, how God can deliver you from that habit that is going to kill you, that sin that is going to kill you, because Romans 6 and 23, the wages of sin is death. So we go to the hospital to escape what Death. So we go to church to escape what Death. So we go to church to escape what Death. Okay, so it doesn't make sense why the church is not a hospital. We'll talk about why it's a hotel later but it starts off being a hospital, saving people from the death and the physical destruction of their sin, of our sin. And yes, you've sinned, I've sinned. But let's go back to Romans 6 and 1. Shall we continue in sin? That grace may abound, god forbid. Because we are dead. What it's? A sin? We can't live any longer therein.
Speaker 1:You go to the hospital. You're dead to whatever sickness that they are curing you. You walk in there with pneumonia. You're dead to pneumonia. Pneumonia no longer exists. So why would you go out, still take pneumonia medication? Why would you go out, still go back and still take pneumonia medication, why would you go out and still go back and get pneumonia? It's the same exact concept. Thank you all so much. I know it went a little bit long. I hope it answered some questions. If you have any questions or comments, email me. You can email me at welcome3bibliostudycom. If you're listening to me on YouTube. You can drop a comment in the question or comment Maybe not a question, because we want to keep the questions private. You can drop a comment down below and like share, subscribe. Thank you all very much. Love you all. See you on the next one.