OUR FATHER WHO SENT HIS SON TO DIE FOR THE SINS OF THE WORLD

Matthew chapter 26 verses 1 - 5 records the change in the atmosphere that occurred two days before the Passover feast when the Lord Jesus finished teaching His followers about His return in great glory as the judge of the whole world but He predicted that first, He was going to be delivered into the hands of the authorities to be crucified.

At that time, the plot to kill Jesus intensified as the Pharisees, scribes and the elders of Israel gathered at the residence of Caiaphas the high priest and planned  

1 Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, that He said to His disciples, 2 “You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”

3 Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, 4 and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him. 5 But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.”

The people of Israel were gathering in Jerusalem for the Passover feast and the religious and political leaders, as they planned to eliminate Jesus, realised that it would be disruptive and cause unrest and chaos with all the people in the city and so they were constrained in what they could do at the time but with trickery, they intended to ensnare Jesus and kill Him.

24

OUR FATHER WHOSE KINGDOM IS RIGHTEOUS KINGDOM

The Lord Jesus, giving the last parable before the dominos that led to His cricifixion began to fall, described a scene where He would be arriving in great glory accompanied by holy angels and He will occupiy a great throne of glory.

All the nations of the earth will be gathered before Him and as a judge, He will separate these nations into two categories: The sheep and the goats. The sheep will be placed on His right side and He will bless them and welcome them into the kingdom they have inherited. The Lord gives the reason for their inclusion in this first group is that they;

• When Jesus was hungry, they gave Him food
• When Jesus was thirsty, they have Him drink
• When Jesus was unknown, they welcomed and included Him
• When Jesus was naked, they gave him clothes
• When Jesus was sick, they visited Him
• When Jesus was imprisoned, they came to see Him

Those who were blessed were confounded because they had no recollection of doing these things for Jesus but He informed them that everytime they helped the people in the margins with no status, no voice and no strength, they were directly helping Him.

31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’

In contrast, those who were placed on the left side of the throne, classified as goats, were those who did not undertake to minister to those on the lowest rungs of society and by failing to do so, let Jesus languish in their midst and were now to face eternal judgement.

41 “Then He will also say to those on the  left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’

44 “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

This sobering event reminds us that a primary preoccupation of the Lord is the care of the weak and lowly for He very strongly identifies with them and He has given all people  an unlimited credit card such that anything given to the poor and any expense undertaken on their behalf is charged to Him and he will repay it.

As Proverbs chapter 19 verse 17 says;

He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, And He will pay back what he has given.

This unconditional contract removes any excuse that we may have from helping the poor. 

Have mercy on us O God.

8

OUR FATHER WHO GAVE US HIS SPIRIT AND HIS POWER TO PROFIT HIS KINGDOM

The Lord Jesus, in Matthew chapter 25 verses 14 - 30, continuing to teach His followers about the kingdom of Heaven, used a parable to explain to them how to be profitable servants during his absence.

In the parable of the talents, Jesus told them of a man who was to travel to a distant country and so divided some of his holdings among his servants to take care of and then went on his way. When the man returned, he assessed the performance of each servant based on what they had done with the assets he had left them. 

14 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. 15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. 16 Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17 And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. 18 But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. 19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.

20 “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ 21 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ 22 He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ 23 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

24 “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’

26 “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.

29 ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

In this parable, the man was Jesus Himself and His followers were the servants to whom the money was consigned. The money represented any deposit of the Spirit of God who supplied the spiritual gifts and power left in the charge those who followed Jesus.

This portion of the gifting and power of the kingdom of God given into our care consists of what is revealed to us as requirements in the kingdom of God for which we are also given unique abilities that we can use to attended to and fulfill them.

In the case of the first and second servants who was given five and two talents respectively, they traded and invested what was given to them and they were able to return double their masters original goods.

What does the trading and investing represent? In the corporeal world, if one were given an amount of cash to administer, one could buy a business or invest in projects that yielded dividends after a period. Carefully managing the portfolio would result in the growth of the value of the holding over time and when the owner of the asset called to draw upon the investment, the deposit would worth more than the initial fund.

Translating these principles into spiritual terms as they relate to the kingdom of God,  what is being proposed is that we handle our own revelations of the kingdom of God and the individual abilities and strengths that are bestowed on us as opportunities to invest in the growth of the kingdom of God with the understanding that what we have been given and how we steward them will be used to guage what we can be entrusted with in the kingdom to come.

In the parable, the third servant displeased his master because he was risk averse and decided to safely bury what he was given so that when the master returned, he could return to him exactly what he was given.

The master argued that if risk aversion was the operating principle, the third servant should have at least placed the money in a low-risk, interest-bearing savings account so that when the master returned, his money could have gained some interest instead of being static and perhaps suffering the ravages of inflation.

This suggestion by Jesus translates into the spiritual realm as an option to serve in other peopleˋs ventures and ministries to take advantage of their successful investments that more gifted people are able to manage and as a result, what was given to the servant would be put towards a growing investment and when Jesus returned, would find that the servant has contributed to another personˋs successfull efforts and would be able to realise interest on His investment.

The third servant, in effect, was given an investment of gifts and power in his life and what he returned to his master was himself alone. The expectation, however, was that each person, having been given a deposit of the Spirit of God, would be able to present other people to his Lord who had been won over to the kingdom of God by the investment of their time and gifts and even if the person could not directly win over souls, could at least join in to help the fishers of men who were successfully netting the souls of men for the kingdom.

Have mercy on us O God.

12