Notes from the observable universe
OUR FATHER WHO SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY SON
To teachl His followers about the mechanics of establishing the kingdom of God in the earth, the Lord Jesus used a parable
33 Another parable He spoke to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.”
4
OUR FATHER WHOSE KINGDOM ON EARTH WILL OVERCOME DARKNESS AND BECOME THE GREATEST
The Lord Jesus continued to teach His disciples about the kingdom He was ushering in and He had explained to them how its moral framework worked and He had revealed the challenges that the kingdom would face from the kingdom of darkness and how those challenges would be overcome.
The Lord then gave the disciples a graphical illustration of the kingdom of heaven that was going to take root on the earth.
Matthew chapter 13 verses 31 - 32 says it this way;
31 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field,
32 which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”
The parable of the mustard seed uses the theme of a seed to visualise how a tiny installation package would be implanted on the earth and it would unfurl into the greatest kingdom on the planet.
The tiny mustard seed is the human form of the Lord Jesus that would die and and be buried in the earth.
Even though this singular event is a very small moment in human history, it would grow into a massive administrative structure overshadowing all other kingdoms on the earth.
The metaphor of trees as kingdoms or adminstrative juridictions is used frequently in the scriptures like where, in Ezekiel 31 verse 3, the cedar tree is directly equated to a kingdom.
Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches and forest shade, and of towering height, its top among the clouds.
The mustard seed, though small, grows into a large tree but just as birds inhabit the branches of a mustard tree, evil spirits will find perches in the mustard tree in keeping with the idea that the kingdom of heaven will face challenges from the kingdom of darkness as the agents of darkness infiltrate the kingdom of light to try to corrupt it and destroy it.
Lord have mercy on us.
4
OUR FATHER WILL SEPARATE THE SHEEP FROM THE GOATS ON JUDGEMENT DAY
Continuing on the theme of the kingdom of God and how it operated among human beings, the Lord Jesus told the disciples another parable commonly known as the parable of the wheat and the tares (tares being a type of noxious weed).
Whereas the previous parable spoke of how the good news of the kingdom affected people differently depending on the conditions of their hearts, this parable revealed how the sowing of evil seeds is used by the kingdom of darkness to sabotage the kingdom of God and how this type of sabotage will be handled by God.
Matthew chapter 13 verses 24 - 30 says this;
24 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. 26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.
27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.
30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”
A land owner, careful to screen his seeds to eliminate weeds before planting, had put in his crop for the season and while the overseers were asleep at the switch, an enemy of the land owner came and dumped a bunch of weed seeds onto the land.
No one from the landowner's side knew what had happened until the seeds started germinating and the crop started appearing but so did the weeds.
The landowner's employees came to him asking if he had indeed screened his seeds properly because the crop was growing alongside a large number of weeds.
The land owner immediately knew that he had been sabotaged by an enemy to destroy his crop. The employees proposed that they could go into the field and pull out the weeds.
To this point, we understand that the seeds are words that planted in mens hearts and in the case of the words of God, a crop ( which represents good men who serve God ) begins to grow from them.
The saboteur, ( representing the devil and his kingdom ), snuck in under cover of darkness and spread their evil words and as a result, men, corrupted by the ways of darkness, emerge among the good crops as weeds.
The instinctive response to this situation would be to go in among the crop and try to isolate the weeds and pull them out as the employees of the landown suggested.
The land owner, more experienced in these matters, knew that an attempt to remove corrupt men from among the good men while they were growing together would be imprecise and would result in many good men being inadvertently uprooted.
This is especially true where the general code of conduct in the kingdom of God demands that good works be done in secret and so distinguishing the good people from the corrupt people by trying to access their deeds is often difficult.
The Lord determined that the most expedient response to the sabotage would be to let the good men and the corrupt men grow through life side by side in the congregations of church-goers but when the day of judgement comes and everything is being uprooted, the weeds would be separated from the crop and incinerated while the good crop, after screening, would be moved into the house of God.
Lord have mercy on us.
2
OUR FATHER WHOSE WORD YIELDS FRUIT IN HEARTS THAT UNDERSTAND
The Lord Jesus, when asked why He taught in parables explained that the news of the kingdom of God was not for the multitudes to understand but rather for the ones He had selected to carry His message from Jerusalem to Judea and to Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth.
He then decoded the parable of the sower to His disciples in Matthew chapter 13 verses 18 - 23;
18 “Therefore hear the parable of the sower:
19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. 20 But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. 22 Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. 23 But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
Jesus explained that the four different ground environments into which the seeds fell represented the four different heart conditions that people were in when they hear the word of the kingdom of God.
He then explained that what resulted when the seeds fell into the different conditions, corresponded to what happened to the word of the kingdom after it landed in the hearts of men;
The disciples of Jesus were given the key to understand how those who heard the word of the kingdom would respond and why they would respond in the way they do.
Implied in the parable are the steps that need to be taken in order to maximize their yield. As the went from community to community spreading the word, they would have to;
OUR FATHER WHOSE PLAN TO SAVE US WAS FORETOLD BY HIS PROPHETS
After telling the crowd people the parable of the sower, the disciples of Jesus were curious as to why He was using parables instead of speaking plainly. They thought it was counter-productive to have a captive audience but then tell them indecipherable stories. Mathew chapter 13 verses 10 - 17 captures Jesus response to this query;
10 And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”
11 He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 13 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:
‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,
And seeing you will see and not perceive;
15 For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them.’
16 But blessed are your eyes for they seme, and your ears for they hear; 17 for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
In responding to the disciples' question, the Lord referred to a prophecy in Isaiah chapter 6 verses 9 - 10 which foretold that the peoples' hearts would be dull and their eyes closed and ears shut and would not understand lest they comprehend what was available for them and they turn and be redeemed.
The plan was for Israel to reject the messiah and if Jesus taught too clearly, they might have understood and repented and this would have short-circuited the salvation process.
The rejection of the Messiah by Israel gave a chance for gentiles in all the rest of the world to hear the gospel and be grafted into the stem of Israel but when the gentiles have reached their fullness, all Israel will be saved.
Amen.
4
OUR FATHER WHOSE WORD IS SOWN ABROAD TO GAIN A GREAT HARVEST
Matthew chapter 13 verses 1 - 9 says this;
1 On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. 2 And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.
3 Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth.
6 But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. 8 But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
Interestingly, the events this passage describe begin on the same day on which the events at the end of the previous chapter occured.
While teaching the multitudes who were following Him, Jesus had a confrontation with the pharisees regarding their demand to be shown a supernatural sign in order to validate what He was teaching. Jesus denied their request and called the pharisees and evil and adulterous generation who would be judged by history.
The political shockwaves that resulted, motivated Jesus' family to come to His meetings to pursuade Him to go home with them to save Him from the wrath of the powers of the time.
Jesus, left the house and went to sit by the sea where the crowd followed Him. To avoid getting overun, Jesus got onto a boat and began to speak to the people on shore from the boat.
He spoke many cryptic parables to the crowd but the one recorded in this passage is the famous parable of the sower who went into a field to sow and as he scattered the seeds, they fell in four distinct environments where four distinct outcomes were observed;
OUR FATHER WHO BRINGS US INTO HIS FAMILY THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS
At one point while Jesus' was talking to the group of people, He got word from the outside of the gathering place that His mother and brothers wanted to speak to Him. Matthew chapter 11 verses 46 - 50 captures the moment;
46 While He was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with Him. 47 Then one said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You.”
48 But He answered and said to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” 49 And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”
The event in this passage parallels the verse in Mark chapter 3 verse 21 that says this;
But when His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.”
The Lord Jesus was holding high profile meetings with religious leaders getting i to confrontatkons with Him and His family became concerned for Him thinking that He had gone over the top.
His mother and brothers came to try talk Him out of His activities because of the political tension that His ministry was stirring up.
When Jesus was informed that his mother and brothers were waiting to speak to Him, He said to the one who brought the information that His mother and brothers and sisters were those who were following Him and who did the will of His Father in heaven.
The Lord Jesus was viewed as being out of His mind by His own family and those who follow Him can expect to bear the same burden especially those believers who convert from other religions or philosophies.
They are sometimes seen by their family and friends as having gone insane but this is a cross to carry that Jesus Himself bore.
Another reality revealed in this passage is that the kingdom of God is a family and all those who are obedient to its calling automatically become each other's brothers and sisters and also become siblings of Jesus Himself.
Amen.
4
OUR FATHER WHOSE SON WAS REJECTED BUT BECAME THE CHIEF CORNERSTONE
Having told the religious leaders (who were asking for a sign be shown to them) that they were out of step with the calendar of God's plan, the Lord Jesus informed them that they would thus be condemned by people out of history who had grappled with far less knowledge than they had in search of God's mercy and wisdom.
Then Jesus, in an unusual fashion, used a parable based on a demonic spiritual reality to elucidate the condition of the generation that was not prepared to receive the Messiah who had been sent to them.
Matthew chapter 12 verse 43 - 45 tells of the journey of an evicted demon that returns to its original home and finding it cleaned and prepared for habitation, recruits other spirits and together, they invade the man and his condition is worse than before.
43 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. 44 Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”
In the parable, the nation of Israel is the man and the demon is the religious and political status quo that had established itself in the society.
The plan of God was to bring salvation to Israel and then to the whole world and so preparation was made where the people were taught about the coming kingdom of God and the house is Israel was cleaned up to be ready for the Holy Spirit to inhabit.
However, the kingdom of God was resisted by Israel and the Messiah was killed leaving Israel available to be inhabited by their original usurping spirit alongside additional pathological conditions and this left Israel in worse shape that it was before.
As the scripture says;
"So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”
The wicked generation that rejected the promised Messiah was going to suffer condemnation from history and be saddled with worse political and spiritual oppression than they were exposed to before.
Lord have mercy on us.
4
OUR FATHER WHOSE WAYS ARE PERFECT
From Psalm 119 - Beth
I sing to You my precious Lord
For in my heart I hid Your word
Teach me that I may always know
The narrow path on which to go
That on Your righteous road I stay
And from Your will I never stray
As I think of Your perfect way
I will delight in what You say
My Jesus, My Jesus,
There is none like You
There is no one else like You
Psalm 119 - Beth - 9 - 16
9 How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word.
10 I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.
11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
12 Praise be to you, Lord; teach me your decrees.
13 With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth.
14 I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.
15 I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.
16 I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.
OUR FATHER WHOSE SON WAS THE CHIEF CORNERSTONE THAT THE BUILDERS TURNED AWAY
The Lord Jesus spoke to the Pharisees about their blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and how their words would condemn them on the day of judgement and in response to the unbraiding they received, the discomfitted pharisees then felt that the hearsay stories of Jesus' miracles were not enough for them and so they wanted to see a miracle with their own eyes so that they could judge whether Jesus was worthy to school them the way He was.
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”
39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
41 The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.
42 The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.
The answer Jesus gave to their request for a supernatural sign was an epic revelation of the momentous grandeur of the mission of salvation that He, the Messiah, had come to fulfill.
The pharisees' request for a sign was denied but they were alerted that there would be one pivotal sign that was available to them and that was the sign that the story of the prophet Jonah foreshadowed.
Just as Jonah went down into the depths of the sea in the belly of a great fish for three days and three nights before rising again, the Son of Man would descend into the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.
This sign, that was the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, was the only sign that would be given to the evil and adulturous generation.
Unbeknownst to the pharisees, they were going to play a part in the events that the Lord Jesus was describing and the fact that that they missed the day of their visitation was going to be the basis for a historical condemnation against them.
Jonah went to Nineveh with no signs and yet upon his preaching, the whole city repented in ashes. In contrast, One far greater than Jonah had come to them with healing in His wings and that generation did not repent but instead demanded signs be performed before them.
The queen of Sheba is also going to condemn that generation because she arduosly travelled a great distance to come hear the wisdom of Solomon and even though One greater than Solomon was among them teaching wisdom, instead of troubling themselves to learn from Him, they demanded a sign.
All the figures of history who hungered and yearned for God on the basis of faint traces of the workings of the Spirit of God will rise up to condemn the generation that had the Son of God, powered by the Spirit of God, moving around in their midst.
Have mercy on us O God.
4
OUR FATHER TO WHOM JESUS WILL INTRODUCES US IF WE CONFESS JESUS BEFORE MEN
Matthew chapter 12 verses 33 - 37 records the continuation of the sharp reprimand that Jesus directed at the pharisees who were denegrating the work of God amoung the people.
They had declared to the people that Jesus' ability to cast out demons stemmed from His cooperation with the kingdom of darkness.
Jesus immediately showed them that their claim was illogical and informed them of the terrible price they would pay for blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
In our passage, Jesus continued with the castigation of the Pharisees as follows;
33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. 34 Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. 36 But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. 37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Trees in the scriptures are frequently used a metaphors for kingdoms or administrative juridictions and here, Jesus tells the pharisees that their administrative jurisdiction is yielding bad fruit because they had made a bad tree.
In this case, the corruption of the tree the pharisees had made manifested itself as the bad fruit of illogical accusations against people.
Calling the pharisees a 'brood of vipers', Jesus was alluding to the poisonous threat that the pharisees and their illogical postures represented.
He told them that because they had cultivated evil things in their hearts, there was no surprise that evil things came out of their mouths because of the principle described by the Lord Jesus where good things automatically come out of the heart of s good man while evil things flow out of the hearts of evil men.
The Lord also took away the possible excuse that the pharisees' words were just passing observation and opinions because he said that in the day of judgement, all men would accountable for every idle word they spoke during their lifetimes.
All the words a man spoke would be the basis upon which he was justified or he was condemned.
If a man used words to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, those words would apear in the transcript against him in the court of final judgement and it is these words that would seal his eternal state.
This principle also applies to the use of words to declare belief and trust in the Lord Jesus before other people for these words, appearing in the transcript of ones' life, are the basis for the introduction that Jesus will make between one of those who trusted Him and God the Father.
“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
Amen.
8
OUR FATHER WHOSE SPIRIT MUST NOT BE BLASPHEMED
The Lord Jesus, having just previously told the pharisees that those who were not with Him were against Him and those who were not gathering with Him were scattering, said this stern warning to them;
31 “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. 32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.
The pharisees found Jesus to be a potent rival for the hearts and minds of the people in the land of Israel and some of them began to plot how to get rid of Him so that they could hold onto their religious monopoly over the territory.
He was challenging the status quo in their understanding of the scripture and the kingdom of God was attesting to the validity of His ministry with astounding supernatural power and authority.
Jesus, in this passage, said that if the visceral reactions against Him out of envy or defensiveness caused the religious and political guard to speak against Him, these offences would be forgivable but, if they ventured beyond challenging Him and blashphemed the Holy Spirit who was the facilitator of the supernatural attestations of Jesus, they would have no pathway to forgiveness either in that time or in the time that was to come.
The pharisees, having attributed Jesus' ability to deliver people from demonic oppresion to the Beelzebub, had blasphemed the Holy Spirit who was the One who had powered the removal of the demons and the healing of the blind and mute.
The damning of the supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit is particularly aggrigeous because it undercuts the outreach that God Himself provides to stir up people's faith and by undermining this outreach, other people can be prevented from attaining a place of trust in God.
Even though there were some factions within the pharisaic order that began to take Jesus seriously like the one to which Nicodemus belonged to, the efforts of the particular pharisees who blasphemed the Holy Spirit, caused them to be excluded from ever reaching saving faith and for them, they were without remedy and in their unforgivable state, ended up pursuing the destruction of Jesus until they succeeded in having Him crucified.
Have mercy on us O God.
8
OUR FATHER'S KINGDOM IS AMONG US WHEN WE SEE THE KINGDOM OF SATAN BEING PLUNDERED
Matthew chapter 12 verses 22 - 30 says this;
22 Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. 23 And all the multitudes were amazed and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”
24 Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.”
25 But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? 27 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. 28 But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house. 30 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.
As the Lord Jesus ministered in healing and deliverance, His reputation grew among the people and they brought people with various afflictions for Him to restore.
On one occasion, a demonized man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus and when Jesus healed him, the man could see and speak again and these kinds of astonishing miracles caused the multitudes of people to increase in their esteem of the Lord Jesus.
The existing religious establishment felt threatened by the ascendancy of Jesus in the minds of the people and one of the prongs that was used to try to discredit the Lord Jesus Christ was to ascribe His power to His collaboration with the king of the demons named Beelzebub.
Jesus detected the thinking of the pharisees and countered their conclusions by showing them that it was illogical.
He asked them how the kingdom of Satan could possibly stand if Jesus was undermining the kingdom Satan by the power of Satan.
How could Satan sponsor the destruction of his own kingdom and expect to sustain his kingdom?
Jesus then asked the pharisees by what power their own sons were casting out demons. If they were claiming that Jesus was doing so by the power of Satan, were not their own sons doing the same? Jesus warned the pharisees that their own sons would judge them for falsely claming that Jesus was casting out demons by the power of Satan.
Jesus pointed out to the pharisees that the more likely explanation of what was happening was that the demons were being evicted by the Spirit of God which then clearly indicated that the kingdom of God was now in operation among them.
Jesus explained to the pharisees that in order to undermine the holdings of Satan, the owner of the holdings must be bound first and then one can enter and take what the strongman has secured for himself.
The Lord Jesus then revealed the polarized nature of existence where there is no neutral ground. Human beings are encamped in one kingdom or the other. If a person is not subscribed to the kingdom of God, one is automatically subscribed to the kingdom of darkness and subject to its mandates.
That is why Jesus said that if we are not aligned with Him, we are against Him because we are aligned with the kingdom of darkness by default..
If we are not actively working in His kingdom gathering in the harvest, we are, conciously or not, scattering that which is slated to be brought in with the harvest and we are undermining the kingdom of God. As verse 30 says;
He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.
Amen.
4
OUR FATHER WHOSE SON IS WONDERFULLY FORETOLD IN THE SCRIPTURES
Matthew chapter 12 verse 15 - 21 reads this way;
15 But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there. And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all. 16 Yet He warned them not to make Him known, 17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:
18 “Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He will declare justice to the Gentiles.
19 He will not quarrel nor cry out, Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets.
20 A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench, Till He sends forth justice to victory; 21 And in His name Gentiles will trust.”
The establishment did not appreciate the challenge that the Lord Jesus represented to their religious dominance over the culture and began to consider ways to ruin Him.
Jesus, knowing their schemes, retreated from the towns and to avoid being tracked down by those who wanted to kill him, He warned His followers not to give away his location.
This was the fulfillment of the Isaiah chapter 42 verses 1 - 4 which fortells that our Father in heaven would declare over Jesus His son that with Him, He was well pleased.
The Spirit of God would then be placed upon Him.
He would bring His justice to the gentiles.
He would retreat to isolated places so as to have a low profile and not end up in brawls with the pharisees.
Any tiny ember of faith held by a person would be protected by Jesus and the Lord would not do anything to quench the small flame of faith.
This gentle and delicate handling of those with weak faith would continue to be practiced by the Lord Jesus until He gained the final and great victory for the kingdom of God and gentiles abandoned their pagan ways and trusted in Him.
Amen.
12.
OUR FATHER WHOSE SON RESCUED PEOPLE IN NEED EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK
Matthew chapter 12 verse 9 - 14 captures an amazing miracle performed by the Lord Jesus in the meeting place where religious people gathered.
Having just had a confrontation with religious leaders regarding the fact that His disciples were working on the Sabbath day picking grain to eat, the establishment figures began attempts to entrap the Lord Jesus and so when He joined their Sabbath gathering, they asked Him a loaded question.
9 Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue. 10 And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—that they might accuse Him.
11 Then He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? 12 Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other. 14 Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him.
The Lord invoked a principle where, in spite of the strict rules against working on the Sabbath, people in urgent situations like if theit sheep fell into a pit, they were permitted to reach out and grab the sheep to pull it to safety.
Jesus argued that if they felt that they could rescue animals on the Sabbath day, would it not be even more permisible to rescue human beings on a Sabbath day?
After asking the question, Jesus said to the man with the withered hand to stretch out his jand and in full view of the attendees, an amazing healing miracle occured and the man's hand was restored to the same condition as his healthy arm.
The religious leaders were offended by Jesus and they felt threatened by His accumen and so they put their heads together to plan how to destroy Jesus.
These plots ultimately culminated in the arrest and killing of the Lord Jesus Christ.
8
OUR FATHER WHO MADE THE SABBATH FOR MAN AND NOT MAN FOR THE SABBATH
Matthew chapter 12 starts off with a confrontation between Jesus' disciples and the religious leaders of the time.
What the religious leaders were objecting to was that the disciples were plucking the heads of grain to eat from grainfields even though this was disallowed on the Sabbath day of rest.
The complaint was taken to Jesus as an accusation against His followers for breaking the Sabbath. Verses 1 - 8 reads like this;
1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.
2 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!”
3 But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?
6 Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. 7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
The Lord Jesus immediately turned to the scriptures to invalidate the charges of the pharisees against His people.
He referenced three scriptures to show the religious leaders that their contention was in error.
Firstly, Jesus showed them that it was not unlawful to eat anything if a person was hungry, where even temple bread, which was restricted and could only be eaten by priests in the temple of God, was eaten by David and his men when they were hungry.
Secondly, their contention that working on the Sabbath was unlawful was contradicted by the fact that the priests in the temple worked through the Sabbath and yet were not in contravention of the Sabbath. Jesus argued that if priests serving the temple could work on the Sabbath without breaking the law, how much more could Jesus' followers work on the Sabbath when they were directly serving the One who was greater than the temple.
Thirdly, Jesus scolded the pharisees because of their haste to indict His followers of wrongdoing when the scriptures clearly taught that God desired mercy over sacrifice. To falsely accuse the servants of the Lord of the Sabbath of breaking the Sabbath to the Lord of the Sabbath Himself was an aggriegious error by the religious leaders.
Amen.
4
4
OUR FATHER WHOSE SON INVITES US TO HIMSELF
In the concluding verses of Matthew chapter 11, Jesus, having set an exceedingly high code of moral conduct for those who wish to operate in the kingdom of God, assures the people that no matter how difficult achieving these things seem to be, anyone who comes to Him would find rest for their souls because He is gentle and lowly in heart and the demands He places on those who go to Him are easy and the responsibilities he gives them are light.
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
The standards of the kingdom of God set be Jesus in this chapter and the preceeding chapter are far above our capacity to fulfill them but Jesus nonetheless says that they are achievable because, if we full heartedly pursue the kingdom, God Himself intervenes to help us to attain these standards by giving us everything we need to do so as Mathew chapter 6 verse 33 says;
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Amen.
2
OUR FATHER WHO KNOWS THE END FROM THE BEGINNING
Nov 4th 2024, the progression of prophecy lands on verse 4 of Isaiah chapter 19.
The enemy of our souls will try to shore up His failing operations and will the whole organization will be given into the hands of a harsh and cruel leader.
1 The burden against Egypt. Behold, the Lord rides on a swift cloud, And will come into Egypt; The idols of Egypt will totter at His presence, And the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst.
2 “I will set Egyptians against Egyptians; Everyone will fight against his brother, And everyone against his neighbor, City against city, kingdom against kingdom.
3 The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst; I will destroy their counsel, And they will consult the idols and the charmers, The mediums and the sorcerers.
4 And the Egyptians I will give Into the hand of a cruel master, And a fierce king will rule over them,” Says the Lord, the Lord of hosts.
5 The waters will fail from the sea, And the river will be wasted and dried up.
6 The rivers will turn foul; The brooks of defense will be emptied and dried up; The reeds and rushes will wither.
7 The papyrus reeds by the River, by the mouth of the River, And everything sown by the River, Will wither, be driven away, and be no more.
8 The fishermen also will mourn; All those will lament who cast hooks into the River, And they will languish who spread nets on the waters.
9 Moreover those who work in fine flax And those who weave fine fabric will be ashamed;
10 And its foundations will be broken. All who make wages will be troubled of soul.
11 Surely the princes of Zoan are fools; Pharaoh’s wise counselors give foolish counsel. How do you say to Pharaoh, “I am the son of the wise, The son of ancient kings?”
12 Where are they? Where are your wise men?
Let them tell you now, And let them know what the Lord of hosts has purposed against Egypt.
13 The princes of Zoan have become fools; The princes of Noph are deceived; They have also deluded Egypt, Those who are the mainstay of its tribes.
14 The Lord has mingled a perverse spirit in her midst; And they have caused Egypt to err in all her work, As a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
15 Neither will there be any work for Egypt, Which the head or tail, Palm branch or bulrush, may do.
4
OUR FATHER IS ONLY KNOWN BY THE SON OF GOD AND THOSE TO WHOM THE SON REVEALS HIM TO
Mathew chapter 11 continues in verses 25 - 27 where Jesus, having explained the hazards of having the truth presented to people who then reject it, continues on to thank God the Father for His strategy of concealing the great mysteries of the kingdom of God from the elite people of society but revealing them to the unsophisticated people.
The access gates into the knowledge of the kingdom of God are regulated by criteria set by the Father and the societal uppercrust is automatically screened out and only by exceptional intervention of God are any people from these higher strata let into the fold. This is why Jesus said in Mark chapter 10 verse 25, that it was harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God than a camel to go through the eye of a needle and that all things are possible with God if exceptions were needed.
25 At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. 26 Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. 27 All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
The Lord Jesus then reveals more gates that regulate access into the kingdom of God.
Jesus has been given all things pertaining to the administration of the kingdom of God and at that point in time, Jesus' status as the Son of God was only known by the Father. In the same way, the Father was only known by Jesus the Son of God.
The knowledge of the Father is revealed only to those who Jesus, by His own authority, choses to reveal Him to and thus, the access gates to the knowledge of the kingdom of God are generally regulated by the restrictions placed on the elite and then more specically, by those whom Jesus hand-picks to have access to that knowledge.
Amen.
2
OUR FATHER WHOSE JUDGEMENT IS COMMENSURATE WITH REVELATION
Having just spoken to the people about their propensity for rejecting the servants of God who were sent to them, Jesus, in Matthew chapter 11 verses 20 - 24, rebuked the cities in which He had done great miracles and yet had found excuses not to turn back to God.
20 Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent: 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. 24 But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.”
In this passage, the Lord Jesus revealed the operation of a relative scale of judgement in the kingdom of heaven that is pegged to the level of investment that is sunk into the territory for the redemption of its people.
Tougher measures of judgement were allotted to the cities in which many great signs were done for them to witness and yet did not repent and turn to God.
The cities in the time of Jesus like Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, had been visited by Jesus and great miracles had been performed there but instead of taking the miracles as gracious invitations to repent, these cities judged and scandalized Jesus for doing miracles on the Sabbath day and for eating and drinking and associating with outcasts. They formulated excuses to diminish the significance of the message that was brought to them.
As a case study, Capernaum, a city near the sea of Galilee, had these miracles, among many others, occur within its vicinity;
OUR FATHER WHO SENT HIS PROPHETS BUT THE PEOPLE FOUND EXCUSES TO DISREGARD THEM
The Lord Jesus, continuing His explanation of John the Baptist's ministry in Matthew chapter 11 verses 16 - 19, said this;
16 “But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, 17 and saying:
‘We played the flute for you, And you did not dance; We mourned to you, And you did not lament.’
18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.”
The Lord commented on the state of the society and its leaders at the time of John the Baptist and the Messiah.
The scoffing and cynical status quo had two citizens of heaven arrive in rapid succession with opposite modes of operation.
John conducted his ministry in a mournful mode codified by reclusion and fasting. The establishment, finding this to be too austere, labled John a demonniac as a way of denigrating and dismissing him.
On the other hand, Jesus conducted His ministry in a celebratory mode codified by sharing in food and drink and by gathering with people from all sectors of the society.
For Him, the establishment gave the labels of glutton, drunkard and associate of outcasts.
In current parlance, we would use the idiom 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' to describe the establishment's critical attacks on any person who was sent to them proclaiming a standard of righteousness that was not welcome. No matter how the messengers approached and how they presented themselves, their message was always rejected.
Jesus compared this conduct by the leaders of the society to the silly games that children played in the market place where some of them would not cooperate and join in no matter what form of activty was initiated. This would prompt calls by the kids (who wanted to engage everyone in play) to say;
‘We played the flute for you, And you did not dance; We mourned to you, And you did not lament.’
The Lord concluded His commentary on the stance of the society by saying that wisdom is justified by her children.
If wisdom is used, the validity of the wisdom is vindicated by the results it yields.
Whether or not rejecting the message from heaven was wisdom would be evident in the day of judgement. As Psalm 37 verse 6 says;
He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.
Amen.
8
OUR FATHER WHO SENT A PROPHET TO PREPARE THE WAY BEFORE THE MESSIAH
When John's followers left to take the Lord's message back to John, the Lord Jesus taught the people about John the Baptist and the significance of his ministry and the sea change that had occured since his arrival.
Matthew chapter 11 verses 7 - 15 says it this way;
7 As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. 9 But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. 10 For this is he of whom it is written:
‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’
11 “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. 13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. 14 And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. 15 He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
Jesus asked the group of people around Him what had attracted them out to the wilderness when John was preaching there.
The Lord answered for them and told them that they had gone out to the wilderness because John was a genuine prophet from God speaking with authority and conviction.
The Lord then told them that John was a greater prophet than all other prophets prior to him but in the spiritual kingdom that Jesus Himself was instituting in earth, the lowest ranking member would be greater than John.
The comparison reflects how momentous Jesus' own mission was because it was bringing in a system of salvation that was so great that the nothing that came before it, even with all the glory that it had, could match it.
Since John started preaching, the Kingdom of Heaven, reaching down to get a foothold on the earth, was suffering a violent counterattack as the agents of darkness were being promted to strike at it in order to snuff it out.
Whereas Moses and the prophets were prophesying into the future about the coming kingdom of heaven, John was the old covenant prophet who actually came into contact with the kingdom of heaven and was no longer prophecying but contending for the platform on which the Messiah would be presented.
John was the warrior prophet in the order of Elijah who was prophesied about and had now come and had plunged into the battle for righteousness headlong for which he was now imprisoned.
Amen.
1
OUR FATHER WHO SENT HIS ONLY SON TO SAVE US AND THERE IS NONE OTHER TO EXPECT
The Lord Jesus, having completed issueing His instructions and guidance to His followers on the side of the mountain, left from that area and began moving through the territory preaching the good news of the kingdom of God.
As Jesus travelled, John the Baptist ( who was in prison ), heard of Jesus' activities.
John was perplexed by the variance between what He thought the promised Messiah whom He had heralded would usher in and what he was actually hearing while in prison.
John believed that the Messiah would come as a conquering king who would deliver Israel out of the hands of the Romans and bring the rulership of the God of Israel to the whole earth.
What was happening instead was that he himself was imprisoned and Israel was still under the control of the Romans with no sign of abatement.
John, as delicately as he could, sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus a question.
1 Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities.
2 And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples 3 and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”
4 Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: 5 The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. 6 And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”
The question John asked stemmed from the conflict that John felt over the fact that he had, with certainty, identified Jesus as the promised Messiah when Jesus arrived at the Jordan river to be baptized and yet John found himself languishing in prison and no great political earthquakes were occuring in the country since that day.
“Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”
When Jesus was asked this question, He recognized the cause of John's internal conflict as a misunderstanding of the progression of events that were to transpire once the Coming One was identified.
Jesus told the messengers to watch the miracle services he was conducting and witness with their own eyes that He was indeed doing what was prophesied in the book of Isaiah chapter 35 verse 5 - 6 which foretold of coming time when these things would occur when the arrival of the reign of Zion would draw God's people and they would experience supernatural interventions.
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 6 Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert.
The Lord sent a message back to John to assure him that all his toil was not in vain and that the program was proceeding exactly as prophecied even though it was not playing out as expected.
The Lord added that there is a blessing that stems from not being offended by the unexpected manifestations of the Lord's agenda and from a willingness to dump our own tightly held orthodoxies in the face of new revelation from the scriptures.
Amen.
8
OUR FATHER WHO REWARDS THOSE WHO RECIEVE HIS PEOPLE
Reaching the end of Matthew chapter 10, we examine verses 40 - 42 that describes an economy of renumeration that operates in the kingdom of God.
40 “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. 41 He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. 42 And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.”
The Lord Jesus tells His disciples that if a person recieves them and in accepting them, provides hospitality for them, that person's response is registered as a direct gesture of acceptance towards the Lord Jesus and towards the Father.
An example of this economy of direct action towards God being achieved by actions towards His disciples can be found in the book of Acts chapter 9 verse 4 where the Lord confronts Saul;
Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
In this case, Saul's harsh actions towards the Lord's followers were transmitting directly to Jesus such that He asked Saul why he was persecuting Him.
Verse 41 enigmatically describes a system of gradation of renumeration that is predicated on the ranking of the person to whom a gesture of a acceptance is made.
If a person hospitably receives a prophet having been identified himself as a prophet, the person shall receive a prophet's reward and likewise for a righteous man.
The nature of the rewards for prophets and righteous men is not explained in the context but, inferring from other biblical contexts, coming alongside a prophet or a righteous man to aid them and facilitate they work results in their mantles being conferred upon the host in the way that Elija's mantle was conferred upon Elisha and Moses' mantle conferred upon Joshua.
Verse 42, in buttressing the principles of verse 41, asserts that even a tiny gesture like a person offering a cup of cold water to one of Jesus' followers who identifies himself as a disciple, that person shall never lose the commensurate reward.
This affirms the granularity of the kingdom of God's tracking system. In a realm where every hair on a person's head is numbered, each miniscule act of favour upon the Lord's servants is transmitted all the way to God and will not be forgotten at the time that rewards are issued.
Amen.
2
OUR FATHER WHOSE KINGDOM IS IN OPPOSITION TO THE THINGS OF THIS WORLD
The Lord Jesus, in Matthew chapter 10 verses 34 - 39, continues delving into the heavy spiritual principles that are at work when a person seeks to participate in the kingdom of God.
34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. 35 For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; 36 and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’
37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.
The conditions that will surround a person when they commit themselves to the kingdom of God include these listed here;
He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.
When operating in the kingdom of God and serving its King, a person who in the face of danger tries to preserve his own life, will instead lose it while the person who relinquishes his life for the King of the kingdom of God, will gain his life.
Amen.
12