God’s word

The Parable of the Mustard Seed and End Times

Biblical Guy Jesus’ End Times Parables, Rapture , , , , , , , , , ,

End Times ParablesMatthew 13: 24-43

Are you in surrendered devotion to Christ or to an end times theorem? 

The Parables of the Mustard Seed and Leaven are explaining what the opposition is like to the Kingdom of God in the form of a metaphor. They use basic language and objects from people’s everyday life. Why, so they can easily grasp and relate to what is being taught. Christ is telling them and us, is your faith real? Is your faith authentic, if not you are a fake a counterfeit that will be pulled up and thrown out.

Yikes, this means Christianity is not a game or a club, it is serious and it is eternal!

Yet, to be real in faith is to have mastery and majesty at our call, we may not be able to literally say to a mountain to jump into the sea, but in eternal manners and relationships, substances that are really important, we can do amazing things! Having power over material things makes a good show, but is of no use to what is really important, our focus needs to be on Christ as our Gardner and not the weeds of the world!

God’s Word has life and power, we must have the willingness to see His grace and apply it to our lives by faith, so we can grow and be used by Him for His glory!

When He is the Gardener our life has purpose and meaning, He may plant you where you do not see the soil; nevertheless, it is there, make sure your roots are strong enough to break through the harshness of life to His nutrients that are available and abound. God calls us to be real and pull up the fakes!

“A man who,” this is a picture of the “Everyman,” the person on the street who is faithfully serving the Lord. Even though only the wealthy owned the land or it was occupied by the Romans most of the people were the workers and their families. These people were peasants and some were slaves. They were like the blue collar worker who owes to the company store, literally, except much poorer. They had little wages enough to survive on but and not enough to break free and go on their own.

In contrast, slaves then were indentured and could be bought and sold. A slave in Greek times was totally at the master’s disposal and even expendable. Jesus message about tolls and obedience would hit home with them since they knew what it means to be in total surrendered devotion. This is the theme for us in Christ that the disciple of the Lord has a will that has been sacrificed to God’s will and thus is totally at the disposal of our Lord (Gal. 1:15; 2:20)!  A peasant could leave; however, they had nowhere to go usually. Both of these groups would know full well what Jesus was teaching.

Jesus sets up His point, “like,” that this is an allegory, as it does not mean the Kingdom of God is a man, “refers to analogy. Even the word field, refers is symbolic perhaps meaning the Church and or the mission field of the world; however the syntax and cultural considerations refer to everything in the universe.

“Wheat “was the primary staple of bread which was the main food. Referring to God’s people.

“Slept,” meaning God is in control, but we still have a responsibility to be diligent and do all we can to prevent and stop false doctrines and dysfunctions in His Church (2 Peter 2; I John 4:1-6). We cannot afford to go to sleep at the help of His precious Church and allow the enemy to come in. Too many churches have done this, in fact, I would say most have!

“Good seed,” refers to the Christians who have taken His Word with trust and obedience who are the on good ground and yielding. Literally as seed means seed that only had wheat seeds and all of the other seeds were removed. It was more expensive, but required less labor.

What is the set up point? Our worth is immeasurable when we are in Christ (John 12:23-26). Just think, Jesus is telling this to slaves and peasants under occupation from one the greatest and most brutal powers in history, Rome. And tells them His Kingdome is greater! What a great picture of His comfort!

Advertisement

Scoffers on the Second Coming PIII

Biblical Guy False Teachers, Second Coming , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Read, 2 Peter 3: 1-9

Have you ever thought that God seems slow? What needs to take place so we can understand that we can have patience and trust in Him and His timing? 

Because it has been nearly two thousand years since Christ’s ascension and proclamation to return, many people have given up and even stated, perhaps Jesus is not coming back. But is this valid? No. If we take God’s Word as true, then we know He is coming back. If we really read the Scriptures and see that God lives outside of space and time and is not governed by our physical or temporal laws of physics or humanity, then we can easily see two thousand years is nothing for God. Besides, this is an aspect of grace to give humanity time to consider the implication of God’s sovereignty and our convection to receive Him as Lord.

For God, time is totally relative and in the scope of eternity. This does not necessarily refer to a literal timeline. Rather, that God’s view and perspective of things is not our view and the converse thereof. This long wait is an aspect of His sovereignty (Psalm 90:4).

We have no knowledge of God’s timing! Thus we are not to forget or refuse to heed to God’s Lordship when we feel impatient.

Patient means that our God is a long-suffering God. When God delays His judgment, this means He is demonstrating His love, grace, and forbearance for the consummation of His purpose. We are to take comfort in that He is a God of grace and mercy and is patient with us when we do not deserve it. He seeks our repentance and trust. Therefore, we have no need to be impatient or confused or allow the mocking or misleading of others to distract us from His purpose and plan (John 6:39).

It seems that God is slow to us, but He is in absolute control and we can have patience and trust in Him and His timing. We are impatient with our thinking and expectations, whereas God is patient, allowing His grace and plan to work out. There is no need to make up dates or predict His Second Coming. We are called to be obedient and wait actively in His Word and truth.

Peter is restating his purpose of being an encourager and, at the same time, is shepherding them. A shepherd protects his sheep. If the sheep run astray, he will do what it takes to keep them safe and put, even if he has to break their legs so they will not be eaten.

A pastor needs to root out false teachers and discipline those who cause others to stumble. If not, others will fall prey to things that are misleading, counterfeit, and dangerous.

We can’t just look the other way, hoping all will work out. We have to be proactive and engage the enemy, even the ones in our own flock. Of course, we do this in love-but not just with feelings of love because we will not feel like loving them and, unless one has a disparaging personality, dispensing discipline will not be a joy.

However, we are called to act and to do so within the Fruit of the Spirit and love, carrying a staff to remove the wolves that desire to carry off our flock.

Scoffers on the Second Coming PII

Biblical Guy False Teachers, Second Coming , , , , , , , , ,

Read, 2 Peter 3: 1-9

“Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 2 Peter 3-4

 

What are some of the fears and unbeliefs that you have you heard people say about the Second Coming? How does scoffing put the item being scoffed at down, while lifting up the scoffer?

Peter lays it out, just read the Passage, all of 2nd Peter. He then cements his reprimand by showing his people the ultimate hope we have in Christ, that our life is all about Him-what He has done, and what He is yet to do. And, the big yet to do is His Second Coming.

Yet, in the mist of our great hope there will be great detractors who seek to derail us off His tracks by seeding our fears and unbelief. If a false teacher can’t get you to see a variant view of a skewed truth, others will turn and ridicule real truth. Thus, they will get you to laugh at the truth to demean it so you will not take it seriously. Scoffing puts the item being scoffed at down while it lifts up the scoffer. Pride is at the base of this, which is always the way Satan works.

They will say, “Do you really believe that?” “How can you take that seriously?” We are to see where their arguments come from, mainly faulty thinking and conniving agendas and conceit, causing us to forget God’s promises and even His past provisions.

Take a closer read at these verses. What is our hope and comfort? God is sovereign and in control! God’s mighty hand was in the environment and in humanity before the beginning of time, and continues today and on to eternity. He will judge the quick (alive) and the dead (Acts 10:42; 1 Peter 4:5; The Apostolic Creed).

God’s word refers to God’s ability and authority to command, create, and be Lord. By God’s word, the universe was created out of nothing. We were created and saved. In context, this also shows us that at the time of creation through today, all of history, that God is a God of involvement and action. He is not passive as the deists teach; there is no reason or need to doubt God! (Gen. 1:1-30; Psalm 33:6-9; Heb. 11:3).

We can rebuff scoffer with the Fruit of the Spirit and a gentle answer, then we can take comfort when they attack that God intervenes in history and in our lives. He will judge, as He demonstrated with the Flood (Gen 6-8).

We rest in “God’s divine Word” as in His utterance that creates and commands, that God is “all powerful.” He will repeat the judgments and we have the importance of God as the One who is in control and who will judge the wicked.

He made the universe; He made you for a plan and a purpose. You are no mistake; therefore, you are wanted and have a destiny. Thus, we are called to realize that and not let false teachers, scoffers, and/or connivers distract us from seeing Christ and applying His Lordship to our lives.