OUR FATHER WHO MAKES KNOWN THE SON TO US

The Lord Jesus and His disciples, traveling west from Capernaum to ease the political tension that was mounting between Jesus and the religious leaders (when He called them hypocrites), came to the Caesarea Philippi area where construction and urban renovations were underway which was one of the ways that the Romans set their mark in the lands that they occupied. While they were in that construction environment, Jesus asked His disciples a question to detect whether the Father in heaven had revealed the ongoing plan of salvation to anyone to them who Jesus actually was. The disciples listed some guesses such as Elijah, Jeremiah and other prophets that they had been hearing being mentioned by the people they had come in contact with. Matthew chapter 16 verses 13 - 17 recorded this interchange.

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

The fact that people were identifying Jesus as a re-appearance of various prophets demonstrated to Him that His  Father in heaven had not yet opened the understanding of the people of Israel. 

Jesus decided to narrow the scope of His inquiry to just the people who had been with Him from the beginning of His ministry and He asked this;

15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

He asked a non-leading question of His disciples to see if any of them had recieved insight into who they had been following all that time and if so, Jesus was expecting to hear very specific words in their response. 

It was Simon Peter to whom the Father had given a grasp of the true identity of Jesus;

16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 

The Lord Jesus was thrilled by this development because He had been waiting for it and His Father in Heaven began this phase of Jesusˋ ministry by opening a window of spiritual undestanding to Peter, the humble fisherman who had left his boat to follow Jesus.

Jesus informed Peter that He was blessed of God because he had not arrived at the conclusion that Jesus was Messiah and the Son of God by the coporeal means of logic or study but rather that the heavenly Father revealed it to Him so that he was able to know what was otherwise concealed.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO INTRODUCED NEW WINE FOR NEW WINESKINS

The Lord Jesus, having just confronted the Pharisees and religious leaders over their hypocrisy of playing the role of spiritual leaders while knowing nothing of spiritual things, wanted to warn His disciples to stay clear of that kind of hypocritical conduct.

In Matthew chapter 16 verses 5 - 12, Jesus said to them to be on high alert against the yeast of the pharisees and Saddusees.

5 When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. 6 “Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

7 They discussed this among themselves and said, “It is because we didn’t bring any bread.”

8 Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, “You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? 9 Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? 

11 How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

The disciples mistook Jesusˋ caution to be a rebuke for forgetting to bring bread with them on the journey across the sea of galilee and they discussed this among themselves.

Jesus,  knowing about their conversation, was exasperated by their inability to understand that bread (or the lack thereof) should not have been a concern for them especially having, on two occassions, seen bread being multiplied enough to feed thousands of people.

Jesus clarified for them that the yeast He was speaking about were the teachings of the religious leaders whose corrupt doctrines were devised to benefit themselves and to maximize their dominance over the people of Israel.

Jesus was warning them that based on their failure to understand the times, the Pharisees and the Saddusees were going to be their primary persecutors starting with Jesus Himself and then the disciples after Him.

Jesus was also warning them against letting the same corruption infect their own doctrines where lifeless religious traditions replaced the potent spiritual life of faith.

In the absence of true spiritul understanding, their own teaching would devolve into the  same corruption that the Pharisees and Saddusees propagated: A directionless and contradictory corpus of man-made traditions enforced by intimidation.

Have mercy on us Lord.

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OUR FATHER WHOSE SON WAS GIVEN UNTO US

Matthew chapter 16 verses 1 - 4  says this;

1 Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; 3 and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. 4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed.

The Lord Jesus went on healing campaigns in the northern areas of Israel and attracted large numbers of people and His growing popularity and influence concerned the religious figures from the establishment and they tested Him by asking Him to prove that He was indeed sent from heaven by showing them a sign from heaven.

Being religious leaders, the expectation of them was that they should have been able to disern the times they were living in and guide the people of Israel accordingly but even though they had learned how to read the signs of the sky to predict the coming weather,  they had failed to learn how to read the spiritual signs and for this reason, Jesus called them hypocrites. They had presented themselves as spiritual leaders of the people but had no understanding of spiritual things. Instead, they had mastered the signs of the corporeal realm to forecast the weather and passed that skill off as spiritual understanding.

The Lord informed them that because they were seeking signs from heaven, this was an indicator that they were wicked and adulterous and as such, no sign would be given to them except the sign of Jonah. If they were righteous and devout towards God, they would has been able to disern the times as Simeon of Jerusalem did as Luke chapter 2 verses 25 - 32 says.

25 At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him 26 and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, 28 Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying

29 “Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised.

30 I have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared for all people.

32 He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel!”

Simeon had set an example of righteousness and was therefore able to disern the times by following the Holy Spirit but the religious leaders were disconnected from the culture of righteousness and so Jesus told them that the only sign they would receive was the sign of Jonah where for three days, Jonah was in the belly of the fish before being regurgitated back on land.

This sign that Jesus promised the religious leaders was a cryptic reference to Jesusˋ own death at their hands where He would descend into the belly of the earth for three days before being vomited out of hell due to the incompatibility between His righteousness and the wickedness of hell.

By actively participating in sign of Jonah, the religious leaders, with only a few exceptions, overlooked the sign altogether and missed the day of their visitation.

In the book of Luke chapter 19 verses 41 - 44, Jesus described the situation this way;

41 Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, 44 and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

Lord have mercy on us.´

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO GAVE HIS SON TO SAVE THE WORLD

The Lord Jesus, in Matthew chapter 15 verse 32 - 39, revealed that He was deeply concerned about the condition of those who had followed Him for up to three days without food.

32 Now Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.”

33 Then His disciples said to Him, “Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?”

34 Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?”And they said, “Seven, and a few little fish.”

35 So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. 36 And He took the seven  loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude. 37 So they all ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left. 38 Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. 39 And He sent away the multitude, got into the boat, and came to the region of Magdala.

The disciples, looking at the desolate surroundings they were in, were not convinced that they could help the large crowd.

Jesus asked them for a small amount of food that they had in reserve and having given thanks, broke up the bread and fish and as it was being distributed by the disciples, it multiplied and became enough to feed all 4000 men and the women and children who had followed Him.

This miracle was a forshadowing of the sufficiency of Jesusˋ sacrifice of His body to be broken for all those who would follow after Him.

His body, symbolized by the broken bread, multiplied to be the grace for all men who believed in Him with even seven baskets to spare.

The pieces of fish that were being distributed alongside the bread symbolized the sacrifices of Jesusˋ  followers (who were themselves fished into the kingdom) who would give their lives to spread the gospel in service of Jesus and together, the power of the gospel would be sufficient to save all those in the world who were to be saved.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO SENT HIS SON TO SAVE US

Leaving the towns by the Mediteranian Sea, the Lord Jesus travelled inland again and went around the edge of the sea of Galilee to an elevated position and sat down there.

The people from all the surrounding areas came with their friends and relatives who had various afflictions like blindness and the inability to talk as described in Matthew chapter 15 verses 29 - 31.

29 Jesus departed from there, skirted the Sea of Galilee, and went up on the mountain and sat down there. 30 Then great multitudes came to Him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus’ feet, and He healed them. 31 So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.

With Jesus healing all the people from their ailments, He was fulfilling the prophecy of  Isaiah chapter 35 verses 4 - 6 which desribes the arrival of God as the salvation of Israel as being distinct because it would be accompanied by the healing of the afflictions of the people.

4 Say to those who are fearful-hearted, “Be strong, do not fear!

Behold, your God will come with vengeance,

With the recompense of God; He will come and save you.” 

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.

Amen.

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 OUR FATHER WHO CANNOT BE PLEASED WITHOUT FAITH

The Lord Jesus, having antgonized the religious leaders who had come to the Capernaum region to take stock of Him, travelled westward to the Mediteranian coast to visit the cities of Tyre and Sidon.  

While ministering there, a woman of the Syro-Phoenecian culture heard of Jesusˋ miraculous power and decided to track Him down and ask for His consideration regarding her daughter who was terribly demonized. The passage from Matthew chapter 15 verses 21 - 28 captured the interaction between Jesus and the woman.

21 Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.”

23 But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, “Send her away, for she cries out after us.”

24 But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

25 Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, help me!”

26 But He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”

27 And she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”

28 Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

The Lord Jesus did not respond to her when she cried out to Him to help her with her child who was at home completely debilitated by the affliction and so she turned to the disciples and badgered them so persistently that they pleaded with Jesus to send her away.

Jesus said to them that He was specifically sent to the children of Israel and thus, she, being a syro-phoenician rather than a child of Israel, was excluded from His ministrations.

The woman elbowed her way through the disciples and worshiped Jesus and pleaded with Him for assistance.

Jesus spoke to her in a parable to clarify for her why he couldnˋt take what was alloted to other people to give to her. The parable described a scene where the children of a household were at the table eating and there were dogs under the table who were begging for food but it would be inappropriate to divert the childrenˋs food to the dogs. Jesus was asking how, in good concious, one could take food away from children in order to feed the little dogs?

In the parable, the children were the people of Israel to whom Jesus was sent. The bread was the teaching and healing ministry that Jesus was dispensing. The little dogs were the non-Israelite people such as the syro-phoenician woman. 

Jesus categorically told the woman that it would be a misappropriation for resources to expend effort on her case but she pressed him with an irrefutable response.

She said to Him that while it was true that taking food from children to give to dogs was wrong, if the children were not eating everything that was being offered to them and some fell off the table, surely the dogs could eat what was being discarded without harming the children.

This answer was very perceptive. 

The children of Israel had been ambivalent about the arrival of their Messiah and as a nation, had not wholeheartedly accepted the fact that the kingdom of God had touched ground in their midst. The woman noticed this and claimed for herself the crumbs that the children of Israel were dropping off the table.

The Lord was arrested by that response. He said to her:

“O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.”

The ˋO womanˋ phrase was an exclamation of surprised admiration that Jesus expressed for this woman.

Because of her great faith, He granted her what she was seeking because she had perceived the unseen substance of the thing she had hoped for.

As the book of Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1 says, 

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Amen.

4

OUR FATHER WHO WILL ONLY PRESERVE THOSE HE HIMSELF PLANTED

The Lord Jesus, having castigated the religious leaders for placing the traditions of men above the law of God, spoke to the people and explained the absurdity of slavishly following the traditions of men. 

10 When He had called the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear and understand: 11 Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.”

Here, the Lord Jesus gave a spiritual axiom that renders the tradition of washing hands before eating spiritually unprofitable. While the cultural traditon was promoted as mandatory in order to maintain spiritual purity,  the Lord explained that eating with unwashed hands cannot cause spiritual contamination. 

Spiritual contamination is caused by the corrupt heart of a man moving the man to say and do  corrupt things and so it can be understood that what goes into a man by means of unwashed hands does not contaminate him but rather, what comes out of his heart in the form of words or actions that manifest from his physical body, is what what contaminates him.

12 Then His disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?”

13 But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14 Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.”

15 Then Peter answered and said to Him, “Explain this parable to us.”

16 So Jesus said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? 18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. 20 These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”

The disciples were concerned that the Lord was provoking the religious and political leaders by challenging the traditions they upheld and so Jesusˋ disciples alerted Him that the Pharisees were offended at Him. 

The Lord told them that His heavenly Father would uproot the doctrinal authority structures that He Himself did not plant (mirroring the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew chapter 13). Because of their lack of spiritual understanding, the pharisees were like blind men and those who followed them were blind and as a result, they would all fall in a ditch. 

Because the religious leaders of the day did not understand spiritual matters, they were concerning themselves with traditions that were pointless and teaching others to focus on these observances that had no effect on their spiritual well being and thus condeming them to lives of futile religious activities.

Amen.

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