Daily Archives: February 29, 2016

Parables Of The Kingdom

Christian Life, , ,

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM

 

Like a diamond, the kingdom of God is many-faceted. The kingdom must have been as difficult for Jesus’s disciples to understand as it is for us. Jesus told stories, many of them beginning with the words, “The kingdom of God is like . . .”, to shed light on the kingdom (but only for those who desired an understanding) – what it is like and what it is about.  Each story illustrates only one small part of the whole. He needed to re-programme their thinking from their fixation with Rome and a restored Davidic kingdom to a higher and unseen realm where God is at work to restore everything that was broken by the Fall.

 

Matthew set out a block of these stories in chapter thirteen of his gospel, beginning with the story about a farmer who sowed seed in his field (Matt. 13: 1-23). This is one of the few stories in this group of parables to which Jesus attached an explanation. The meaning of the story is quite clear; one kind of seed, four types of soil, four different responses to the word of God (Luke identified the seed as the word of God – Luke 8: 11). This was how He told it, but what was the point of the parable?

 

This is the surprising part. Jesus explained that one of the reasons why He taught in parables was to confirm the condition of people’s hearts. When people have no desire to know the truth, what they are told only serves to harden them in their unbelief. Their minds are closed to the meaning and value of God’s kingdom because they do not want to know.

 

His disciples were privileged to be given understanding because they had a heart to follow and become like their rabbi. As for the rest, the more stories He told, the less they understood because that was the nature of their hearts.

 

To His disciples Jesus made one thing clear; they were to seek to understand and follow God’s way above everything else. His rule had to take priority over all else because His way as interpreted and lived out in front of them by their rabbi, was the only way that would lead them to the Father. Even His disciples did not understand that He was the way to the Father until He spelled it out for them.

 

Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus answered, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ (John 14: 5, 6)

 

Whatever Jesus had to say about the kingdom of God was, in the end, exemplified in Him. He was the interpretation of God’s rule and the mirror image of the Ruler – the Father. Experiencing the kingdom would not be difficult if they simply stuck to their role as His talmidim because He insisted that the purpose of His coming was, among other things, to show them how to live in the spirit of Torah.

 

This is how He summarised what He expected of them as His talmidim, both in their own lives and in the way they showed others what God’s kingdom is like.

 

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matt. 6: 33)

 

How often we quote this verse without having much idea of what He meant! Once again we must put it in context, both in the immediate context and in the context of the entire Sermon on the Mount. His sermon was about how to live under the rule of God. He described the lives of the people who relinquish their right to make their own rules in favour of returning to the path – the way which takes them to the Father.

 

A large part of what we relinquish is our worldly attitude towards money and things, which was at one time characterised by selfishness and greed. Instead of being preoccupied with making a living or getting rich, we should be focussed on living under God’s rule. Life is not about how to make ends meet because He has pledged to take care of our needs. We have an obligation to demonstrate God’s compassion towards those who are in need, and to do something about it as our response towards God for His compassion and mercy to us.

 

A ”righteous”  person is one who stays on the path and follows the landmarks that take him towards God’s name – His character mirrored and exemplified in Jesus, the replica of the Father. Every opportunity we have to show mercy and compassion, in the spirit of Torah, is another landmark on our path towards the Father.

 

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Do you like this post? Then buy your own copy of my book, Learning to be a Disciple, which is also available from www.amazon.com or www.takealot.com in South Africa. You can also order a copy directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com

Watch this space!

My latest book, The Heartbeat of Holiness, will also soon be available.

 

 

Jesus And The Kingdom Of God

Christian Life, , ,

JESUS AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Jesus spoke repeatedly of the arrival of God’s kingdom, both present and future as “good news”. What did He mean by “good news”? What was the good news He announced by His coming? When the Romans arrived on the scene in the already-occupied-by-Greece land of Israel, for the Jews it was bad news. The presence of the Roman authorities was not only an affront to their sovereignty as a nation and their freedom as a people, but it also brought with it many forms of suffering.

They could never forget that they were an occupied nation. The Romans were everywhere, waiting to clamp down on them and quell any signs of rebellion. The people were subjected to severe taxation which left many of them impoverished and resentful of their overlords and those of their own people who worked for them. What’s more, their religious hierarchy were in cahoots with Rome, benefitting handsomely from applying whatever pressure was necessary to keep the peace.

Jesus’s announcement of good news might have sent His disciples’ pulses racing but for one thing – He made no attempt to deal with the Romans. In fact He practised and taught the opposite; He healed people indiscriminately, in response to their faith and not according to their race; He taught His disciples to love their enemies, and to submit to their overlords. That did not sit well with the religious zealots who were more than eager to get rid of the Romans by whatever means it took.

So, if the good news was not about ridding Israel of Roman occupation and re-establishing the glory of the Davidic kingdom, what was it about? To understand His message, we must go back to the Old Testament. Isaiah prophesied of a day that was to come when Jerusalem would be restored after the devastation of captivity. He offered good news to the people of Zion.

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say in Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’ Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. When the LORD returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes. (Isa. 52:7-8)

“Your God reigns!” That was the good news but what did it mean and when would this happen? God would finally dealt with their core problem – sin – and deliver them once for all from the ravages of sin through His Suffering Servant. Isaiah graphically described, in fifteen verses (Isa 52:13- 53: 12) the nature of this deliverance – the sacrifice of the innocent for the guilty so that the guilty may be forgiven and be reconciled to God.

Inherent in Jesus’s message of good news was the restoration of God’s authority over His people when their sin was atoned for and removed once for all. This was not about Rome. This was about an occupation far more sinister and far-reaching than Rome’s. Their hearts were occupied by a usurper whose power over them had to be destroyed by exposing his deception and breaking his hold over them so that they could return to the God who had called them into a covenant with Him.

Jesus announced that the time had come for this to be accomplished. God was at hand to establish His reign in their hearts once again. Through them, He would extend it into every corner of society and every part of the globe until Jesus returns to dispose of the devil and establish His eternal kingdom on earth.

Adam and Eve sold out to the deceiver who aspired to usurp God’s place as Lord! Over the millennia, the devil has done everything in his power to own and keep this title by enslaving the human race through the sin, sorrow and suffering that came with their disobedience. The good news Jesus brought was truly “good news”. God said, “Enough is enough! Satan has had his day and now the time for deliverance has come.”

God’s reign is intended to restore righteousness and justice in the earth where evil reigns and destroys. When Jesus is acknowledged as Lord by every person who has ever lived and every angelic being, good or evil, Satan and all evil will finally be disposed of to the place where he belongs. All creation will know that Jesus is Lord and not the devil or any of the false gods he has hidden behind from the beginning of time.

The new era of the kingdom of God was ushered in when Jesus came, which He demonstrated by His words and works. The kingdom of God is among us now, but not yet in its fullness. It will only come fully when Jesus returns to reign over His redeemed people and a renewed and restored earth.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Do you like this post? Then buy your own copy of my book, Learning to be a Disciple, which is also available from www.amazon.com or www.takealot.com in South Africa. You can also order a copy directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com

Watch this space!

My latest book, The Heartbeat of Holiness, will also soon be available.