When you were a kid and built a fort, what was one of the first things you did? You made up a secret knock before anyone could enter! For adults it’s no different. In a country club you have to pay your dues or if you want to get backstage you need a pass.

Jesus is the new gatekeeper over His Kingdom. We can courageously walk right in now because we are the kingdom wherever we go as the people of God. This was maddening to the religious gatekeepers, the Pharisees. They had lots of things that said, “You can’t come in.”

Jesus arrived on the scene and started giving away the password: “Whoever.”

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believer in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Can you imagine this happening anywhere else? Who can belong to Augusta? WHOEVER. Who can go backstage to TobyMac? WHOEVER.

Jesus wants everyone in His kingdom! Peter writes in 2 Peter 3:9 that Jesus is “patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

Whoever literally means everyone. Jesus is calling everyone, not just the rich but also the poor, not just the Jews but also the Gentiles, not just the men but also the women. When Jesus says whoever, it’s an open-ended call for everyone!

5 WHOEVER CHALLENGES TO SPUR US ON TOWARD LOVE AND GOOD DEEDS

1. Open your ears
Jesus says in Mark 4:9 that “whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” Jesus is calling us into a paradox in which we must open our hearts to hear God’s truth yet we cannot open our hearts unless God first opens them.

Pray “God, open my hears. I want to hear you.”

2. You have a role to play in the Kingdom
In Mark 3:35 Jesus says that “whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.” Jesus completely redefined family – one that transcends bloodline, genealogy, and estate plans.

However, he also says that any healthy family knows that we need two things to feel like we’re truly home: relationship and responsibility. Jesus is not only radically redefining who can belong in the family of God, he’s also bringing us the challenge to take up what is ours.

3. Let Jesus draw the lines, let’s just love
Mark 9:40 For whoever is not against us is for us.

We have an insatiable ability to divide, sector, splinter, and faction but Jesus put a stop to that and said, “Do not hinder him…”

Letting God draw the lines doesn’t mean we live without conviction, it just means we aren’t the judge and jury on everything. It means we speak truth but in love and we don’t make mountains out of molehills.

4. True leaders give up their seats
Jesus said in Mark 10:43-44 But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all.

James and John wanted a backstage pass but it got out of hand when the other 10 heard about it. Jesus says that the best leaders give up their seats.

5. Jesus wants us all in
Mark 16:16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

By Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, we believe that: in Christ, our every sin is forgiven; in Christ, our every desire is fulfilled; in Christ, our purposes have meaning; in Christ our eternity is secure.

Jesus stands down the bouncers and offers us a backstage pass into the best Kingdom ever and he calls you by simply saying, “whoever.” We are all whoevers, all you need to do is take your pass, sidestep the bouncers in your life, and come in.