OUR FATHER WHOSE GLORY IS GIVEN TO THE SON OF GOD

The Lord Jesus, having spoken to His disciples about the changing season where He would go to Jerusalem and face death at the hands of the religious and political leaders, taught them that their involvement in the kingdom He was ushering in would require them to follow His example by taking up their crosses the way He was going to take up His.

He explained to them that the economy of the kingdom of God worked counterintuitively  by sacrifice where working to preserve oneˋs own life caused the loss of the life while losing oneˋs for the sake of Jesus would result in the recovery of that life.

In the kingdom of God where eternal values are being traded for, the Lord Jesus counsels His disciples to value nothing of the world because even if they acquired the entire earth, what help would that be to them if they lost their soul?

In another transactional analogy, the Lord asked His disciples what they would offer to retain their own souls. The loss of oneˋs soul is the loss of oneˋs being and continual conciousness and in face of the extinguishing of oneˋs conciousness, would not even oneˋs life be a reasonable trade for the retention of the soul seeing that life on earth is temporal while the concious soul would be eternal?

The soul, if preserved in Christ, would, if one was to give their life to Christ for His Kingdom, be rejoined in eternal life so that a person would experience a contiguous progression of their being from the temporal realm to the eternal realm.

Matthew chapter 16 verses 24 - 28 says this;

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 

26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 

27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.

28 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

If a person gave up their lives for Christ, they would see the Son of Man in His Fatherˋs glory with His angels where what they forfeited and what they did in obedience would be compensated for in the form of a reward.

Jesus concluded this elucidation by declaring to His disciples that some of them standing there with Him,  having given up their lives and livelihoods to follow Him, would see Him in the context of His kingdom before they died and the truth of His words would be made clear to them.

Amen.

4

OUR FATHER WHO GAVE HIS SON AS A RANSOM FOR MANY

After Peter had said that he believed that the Lord Jesus was the Messiah and the Son of God, Jesus began to speak of the end point of His ministry on earth where the religious leaders would orchestrate His death but that he would rise on the third day. Matthew chapter 16 verses 21 - 23 records this change in messaging that occured.

21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

There seemed to have been an agreement between the Father and the Lord Jesus that Jesus would know that the time had come to prepare to fall into the hands of the religious leaders when the spiritual understanding of Jesusˋ true identity became clear to at least one person.

Jesus began to educate His disciples about the approaching eventuallity that was the ultimate reason for His mission on earth.

In reponse to this, Peter grew very concerned and countered Jesusˋ words by saying that He and the others would never let the terrible fate of death happen to HIm.

Jesus rejected Peterˋs objection seeing that it was a fleshly impulse to avoid difficulty while the pertinent impulse should have been to attend to Godˋs concerns over every other considersation.

Lord have mercy on us.

Amen.

4

OUR FATHER REVEALED HIS ETERNAL SON TO MORTAL MEN

Matthew chapter 16 verses 17 - 20 continued from where Peter spoke the words that confirmed that the Father had given the revelation of Jesusˋ identity to one of His followers and Jesus responded by blessing him and telling Him that tehe source of what He now knew about Jesus was not as a result of earthly pursuit but rather an intervention by our Father in heaven.

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. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I  will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

The Lord Jesus declared that the revelation that had been issued to Peter was the foundation upon which He would build His church and that the gates of hell would not be able to withstand the onslaught of the the chuch when it came to plunder the souls of men from out of its grasp.

The revelation would give those who believed it and adhered to it a super-power that would give them the access codes to the kingdom of heaven and they would have the authority to bind and loose things in the spiritual realm by binding and loosing them on earth.

In other words, because of the revelation of Jesus as Messiah, coporeal beings operating in the corporeal realm would be bestowed with the power to bind and loose things in heaven.

This momentus turn of events where a mortal man was given the understanding that jesus was the Messiah, as stunning as it was, needed to be kept discreet because the time had not yet come to proclaim it to the wider society and it was such a bold and consequential claim that it became the flash point that triggered the religious esablishment plot how they could  kill Jesus.

Lord have mercy on us.

Amen.

4

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.

12

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.

4

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.

12

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.

1

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.

4

 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.

12

OUR FATHER WHO DESIRES OBEDIENCE OVER SACRIFICE

Matthew chapter 15 starts with the religious and academic leaders of the day, having traveled north from Jerusalem to assess what the Lord Jesus was doing in the Samarian territory, observed that the disciples of Jesus did not observe the traditions that were laid down by men.

They approached Jesus with an objection to the fact that his disciples did not wash their hands before they ate bread. The washing of hands before eating was not a legal requirement but had been established as a cultural tradition and the religious leaders were  enforcing the tradition as though it were law.

The passage in Mathew chapter 15 from verse 1 to verse 9 records the confrontation between Jesus and the pharisees on this point.

1 Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, 2 “Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” 

3 He answered and said to them, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ 5 But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God”— 6 then he need not honor his father or mother.’ Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. 

7 Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 

8 ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.  

9 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

The Lord Jesus turned the hyper-sensitity of the religious leaders to their traditions back on them. Jesus told them that they venerated the man-made cultural norms so highly that they displaced the actual commands of God with their traditions.

He gave an example of a tradition had been set up where a person could say to his parents that whatever they were going to receive from him was a gift to God and by saying this, that person was no longer obilgated to honor his parents with support and thus the law of God that required a person to honor his parents was nullified by a artificial custom.

The Lord, incensed by the scribesˋ and phariseesˋ disregard for the holy law of God, quoted the prophet Isaiah in chapter 29 verse 13 which foretold of the teachers of the law who made a public showing of their peity but were insincere and preferred their own mandates over what God actually required.

“Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips,

But have removed their hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men,

Amen.

18

OUR FATHER WHO HEALS THE BROKEN HEARTED AND BINDS UP THEIR WOUNDS

Matthew chapter 14 ends with verses 34 - 36 where Jesus and His disciples arrived at Gennesaret on the east side of the sea of Galilee.

34 When they had crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place recognized Him, they sent out into all that surrounding region, brought to Him all who were sick, 36 and begged Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well.

The Lord was known by people even in this part of the territory and they brought those who were sick to Him. Having heard that even touching the hem of His clothes would heal people, the people asked him for permission to do so and and those who touched the hem of His garment were fully healed.

As Psalm 147 verse 2 says;

He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.

Amen.

4

OUR FATHER WHO IS PLEASED WHEN WE WALK IN FAITH

The Lord Jesus instructed His disiciples to get in a  boat and cross to the other side of the Sea of Galillee as He released the crowds.  He then went to up a mountain alone to pray. 

Out on the water, the winds kicked up and the boat was being tossed by the waves.

Matthew chapter 14 verses 22 - 33 tells the events on the sea of Galillee.

22 Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. 23 And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. 24 But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.

25 Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. 26 And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.

27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.”

28 And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”

29 So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”

31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

33 Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”

Jesus, having prayed into the night, set out after the disciples who had left nine or more hours before in the boat. 

In the darkness of between 3:00 am and 6:00 am, they spotted a figure walking towards them on the water and they concluded that a ghost was coming after them and they exclaimed in terror.

Jesus called out to them and reassured them that it was He and Peter, wanting proof of His identity, asked that if it was Jesus they were seeing, He should command that Peter get out of the boat and walk on the water too.

Peter was summoned and so he stepped out of the boat and began to tread on the surface of the water. He was successfully walking towards Jesus until the violent wind gusts caught his attention and his confidence faltered and he began to sink.

Jesus walked up to him as he descended into the water and grabbed his arm and said, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" . 

With these words, Jesus revealed the primary dynamic of walking in faith. 

If we have stepped out in faith and are now treading on the surface of the water, we must keep our nerves calm and keep moving forward. As we walk, there will be threats and dangers presented on either side of us by the kingdom of darkness that are designed to make us second-guess what we heard and what we are doing. If we take the bait and consider the harm that surrounds us and question the wisdom of being out on the open water following the Lordˋs commands, our faith will disolve and we will sink.

The Lord had to intervene to save Peter and once they were in the boat, the storm calmed down and the disciples who wittnessed these things from the boat worshiped Jesus and acknowledged that He was who He had been saying He was; The Son of God.

Amen.

8

 OUR FATHER WHO GIVES US OUR DAILY BREAD

The Lord Jesus, hearing about what happened to John the Baptist at the hands of king Herod, went to a deserted area to seek seclusion and to lower His political profile but word got around where He was and huge crowds travelled to the territory.

Even though it was not a good time for Him to be with so many, He was moved with compassion for all the convoys of people and their sick family members who they brought and so He overode His own comfort and ministered to them and healed the sick. Matthew chapter 14 verses 13 - 21 recorded this interaction between Jesus and crowd that went late into the evening and the disciples advised Jesus to send the crowd away to buy food for themselves before it was too late. 

It was at this time that the Lord famously charged His disciples with feeding the large crowd. 

13 When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself 21. But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities. 14 And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick. 15 When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.”

16 But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

17 And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.”

18 He said, “Bring them here to Me.” 19 Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. 20 So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. 21 Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

The disciples, looking at the crowd of perhaps up to 10,000 people, were at a loss as to how to feed them as the Lord had commanded them since they only had five loaves of bread and two fishes so they pointed out their connundrum to Jesus.

Asking for the small ration that they had, Jesus looked up to heaven, blessed the food and broke it apart and gave it to the disciples to distribute to the multitudes.

The bread and fish were materially multiplied as they were divided and distributed so that they were able to feed all the people till they were full and had  twelve baskets of bread and fish fragments remaining.

The Lord is able to provide.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO SENT A MESSENGER TO MAKE STRAIGHT THE ROAD FOR THE MESSIAH

Reports coming back to the polical leaders spoke of spiritual stirring and miraculous events occuring at the hands of Jesus and King Herod was concerned because he thought that the one doing these miracles was perhap John the Baptist whom he had executed but had somehow come back to life.

John the Baptist, the prophet who had identified the Messiah at the river Jordan, had been languishing in prison because he had challenged the king Herod for taking the wife of his own brother.

It was from prison that he sent messengers to Jesus to ask if He was indeed the one Israel had been waiting for come or if they should expect another. The people of Israel held many preconcieved notions of what the awaited Messiah was going to be doing and John the Baptist felt that if Jesus was indeed the Messiah, he would have been in prison for asserting rightous standards.

Jesus sent back a message to John in prison to assure him that the marker of the Messiah was not political triumph or vanquishing foreign invaders but rather that:

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. (Matthew 11 verse 5)

Herodias, king Herodˋs wife, became Johnˋs enemy because he had challenged her legitimacy as the kingˋs wife and so she opportunistically moved to have him executed. Matthew chapter 14 verses 1 - 12 records the circumstances that led to Johnˋs death.

1 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus 2 and said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him.” 3 For Herod had laid hold of John and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. 4 Because John had said to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” 5 And although he wanted to put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet.

6 But when Herod’s birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod. 7 Therefore he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask.

8 So she, having been prompted by her mother, said, “Give me John the Baptist’s head here on a platter.”

9 And the king was sorry; nevertheless, because of the oaths and because of those who sat with him, he commanded it to be given to her. 10 So he sent and had John beheaded in prison. 11 And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. 12 Then his disciples came and took away the body and buried it, and went and told Jesus.

King Herod had not wanted to harm the prophet John but his confidence and pride were exploited to force his hand and he ordered the execution of John.

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OUR FATHER WHO SENT HIS ONLY SON TO HIS OWN PEOPLE BUT HIS OWN RECEIVED HIM NOT

Reaching the end of the teaching of parables, the Lord Jesus travelled back to His hometown and began teaching and ministering there. The end of Matthew chapter 13, going from verses 53 - 58, records that people were astonished at His wise understanding of the scriptures and the supernatural signs that followed Him.

It was incongruous to the people because they knew His family and He was not from an exotic foreign country but rather, He and His humble family lived among them and were well know to them and as a result, they were offended at what Jesus was presuming to do in their midst.

53 Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, that He departed from there. 54 When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55 Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? 56 And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?” 57 So they were offended at Him.

But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.” 58 Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

The Lord explained to them the phenomenon of people tending to treat prophets with honor as long as they were not familiar members of their own communities. 

The sad effect of this was that the people, because of their familiarity with the Lordˋs family, had little faith and their unbelief resisted the occurence of miracles and so only a few supernatural works happened there.

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OUR FATHER WHO HAS SET A DAY OF JUDGEMENT

The Lord Jesus, in Matthew chapter 13 verses 47 - 52,  reiterated the lesson of the separation unto judgement that would occur at the end of the age where the angels of the kingdom of heaven will sort through those who have associated themselves with the kingdom of God.

Using a fishing-themed parable to illustrate this filtering process, the Lord described a dragnet that pulled up all manner of creatures from the sea. Once in the boats, the good fish, representing the genuine sons of the kingdom, are gathered into vessels while the bad fish, representing imposters who are the sons of wickedness, are discarded into the fire.

47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, 48 which, when it was full, they drew to shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, 50 and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

51 Jesus said to them, “Have you understood all these things?”

They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”

52 Then He said to them, “Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.”

The Lord checked with His followers to see if they were able to interprete the meaning of what he was teaching them. They said they understood and the Lord then told them another parable of a houseowner and his treasures.

The houseowner, representing those who were immersed heavily in the word of God pertaining to the kingdom of Israel and were also able to gain an understanding of the kingdom of heaven, brought out his old and new treasures to showcase.

This represents how the understanding of the kingdom of  Israel is preserved as a valuable treasure even as it is added to by the understanding of the incoming kingdom of heaven.

Knowledge of the old testament remains a treasure even as the new testament adds to it and even amplifies it.

Together, these two testaments are brought out of the storehouse for display to the whole world as a testimony of the Lord's mighty work of salvation.

Whereas the old treasure was confined to the storehouse of the nation of Israel, when the new treasure is uncovered, the old treasure is brought out into the open to be available to all for wisdom.

Matthew chapter 13 verse 52 out of the NIV says it this way;

52 He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHOSE KINGDOM IS OF UNFATHOMABLE VALUE

The Lord Jesus concluded his exposition of the parable of the wheat and the tares with this statement in Matthew chapter 13 verse 43;

43 Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

Here, the righteous, who had paid the price and enrolled in the kingdom of their heavenly Father, are described by Jesus as shining brighter than the sun.

The Lord, wishing to drive home the point of how extremely valuable the kingdom of heaven is,  continued teaching his disciples, with the use of two very similar parables found in Matthew chapter 13 verses 44 - 46.

Both these parables describe the appropriate response to the discovery of the kingdom of heaven given the proper understanding of its value.

44 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, 46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

In the first parable, the Lord Jesus tells of a man who was prospecting on a piece of land when he stumbled upon a treasure that he immediately understood was highly valuable. He excitedly concealed the find and went off to sell off all his other holdings so that he could return and buy the field. The man did this discreetly so that the owner of the land did not know of the treasure and either refuse to sell the land to him or rachet up the price of the land to account for the presence of the treasure.

By starting the second parable with the word 'again', Jesus indicated that the second parable carried the same lesson as the first but he framed it in a different milieu.

Whereas the first was based in the context of a valuable substance hidden underground that was concealed from sight, the second was set in a jewelry market where a trader, looking through the inventory of pearls, discovered a particular pearl of very high value that no one else had detected.

He quietly went off to sell everything he owned in order to return to the market and buy the pearl that he had discovered.

These two parables speak of the serendipitous discovery of a very valuable thing that no one knew about. In the first case, the valuable thing was hidden from sight so that no one was aware that it was there until the man uncovered it. In the second case, the valuable thing was in plain sight alongside all the other low value pearls but everyone was ignorant of its actual value and passed up on the opportunity to buy it.

In both cases, the men, realizing the importance of what they had tripped over, ransacked their own lives in order to invest everything they owned in what they had discovered.

The two cases correspond to the two different backdrops that the good news of the kingdom finds its hearers in. Some people hear of the good news of the kingdom in a spiritually dry desert and immediately understand its value and jump at the chance to acquire membership. 

Other people, awash in a miriad of religions and philosophies, disern the unique value of the propositions of the kingdom of heaven and give their entire lives in exchange for it.

With these parables, twinned for emphasis, the Lord Jesus counsels us to divest ourselves of all our earthly holdings in order to possess the eternally priceless treasure of the kingdom of heaven.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHOSE SONS WILL SHINE LIKE THE SUN

After the events of the day concluded, the disciples asked the Lord Jesus to decode the parable of the wheat and the tares for them as recorded in Matthew chapter 13 verses 37 - 43;

36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.”

37 He answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. 39 The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. 

40 Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. 41 The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, 42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

The Lord explained the parable by associating the people and components of the parable with the reality they corresponded to;

• The owner who sowed good seeds was Jesus Himself
• The field being sowed was the world
• The good seeds were the sons of the kingdom
• The weeds were the sons of the wicked one
• The sower of bad seeds was the devil
• The harvest was the end of the age
• The harvesters were the angels

The activity at harvest time mirrors the activity at the end of the age where the sons of wickedness are  separated for destruction and eternal regret while the sons of the kingdom of God are separated for eternal glory. 

Lord have mercy on us.

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OUR FATHER WHOSE KINGDOM OPERATES BY MYSTERIES

Matthew chapter 13 verses 34 - 35 continues this way;

34 All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them, 

35 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: “I will open My mouth in parables;

I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world.”

The parables the Lord taught were glimpses into the nature and form that the kingdom of God would take when it touched ground but the parables were designed to keep the things of the kingdom secret except to those who were being given the kingdom.

Keeping the things of the kingdom of God secret from the kingdom of darkness gave the kingdom of God the advantage so that its plans could unfold in plain sight but be completely opaque and mysterious to those who would try to thwart the purposes of God.

Amen.

4

OUR FATHER WHO SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY SON

To teach His followers about the mechanics of establishing the kingdom of God in the earth, the Lord Jesus used a parable in Matthew chapter 13 verse 33;

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.”

The Lord Jesus used the concept of a woman taking an amount of a rising agent like yeast and then introducing it to a volume of flour. 

The woman then kneaded the dough with the yeast until the small quantity of yeast was distributed evenly throughout the flour and could act in all the sectors of the meal.

This is an illustration of how the kingdoms of this world would be infused with the rising agent of heaven such that they would all be acted upon by the agent.

The efforts of the woman, standing in for the church's work of distributing the good news of the kingdom on the earth as well as manifesting of the active agents of the kingdom of heaven, establishes the rulership of the Lord Jesus through the earth.

As Psalm 110 verse 2 says;

The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies!

Amen.

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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;

• On the hard wayside where people walked
• Hearts that don't understand
• Birds devoured the exposed seeds
• Evil spirits erase the word from their knowledge

• On stony shallow soil
• Hearts that are shallow
• Seeds germinated quickly but soon died
• Word received with joy but withers when pressure comes due to shallowness

• Among thorns
• Hearts that are  immersed in this world
• Seeds were choked by competition
• Worries and attractions of this world distract from the kingdom and they are rendered unfruitfull

• In deep good soil
• Hearts that understand the gravity of the kingdom and commit themselves to it
• Seeds took root and yielded a harvest
• The seeds germinate and are able to replicate themselves 30, 60 and 100 times over

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;

• Ensure that their message was understood
• Cultivate resilience and endurance
• Teach recipients to detach from the world
• Invest in those who understood

Amen.

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