Highlighted New Testament Bible

Purchase the complete 691 page text of The Highlighted New Testament Bible. (See link below) Look inside pages with this flip presentation.

Enlarge this document in a new window
Self Publishing with YUDU

Sunday, February 7, 2016

St. Matthew, Chapter 20, verse:28b, The Ransom.

Our paragraph topic is: (Humility according to Christ's example) Part 8.

Christ wanted his disciples to understand his humility.  He wanted to give them an example that they could believe in and follow, an example that they could accept.  For he had told them that if they wanted to be great they had to become servants.  He told them that if they wanted to be first then they would have to become slaves.  He told them that even though he was lord and teacher and Messiah, he came that he might serve and not be served.

Christ had power.  He had influence.  He had all that they wanted to become.  They believed that he would take over the existing rulers and establish a new kingdom of which they would become a part.  This is why the mother of James and John came forward and spoke the words of sitting on high at his right hand and his left.  They believed that they would become rulers with him.  But contrary to all that they believed, Christ was a humble man.  He was a meek man.  He was a man with a purpose.  And he told them that he came: "To give his life as a ransom for many."

He knew why he came.  He knew the journey.  He knew the end.  And he understood the sacrifice that had to be made to ransom the many.  How difficult would it be to live your life knowing the outcome?  We all must die, but we expect to die of old age.  To live your life knowing the outcome would be like knowing that you are dying of cancer.  It would be like 
trying to find some purpose to go on living until the end comes.  What purpose is there?  What meaning is there?  What life is there if you know for certain that death waits for you in a month, 6 months or a year?  And you can feel your life slowing slipping away.  Yet this was the life of Christ who came to be the ransom.

He knew the outcome.  He knew of the pain.  He knew of the suffering that he would face.  Yet he marched forward facing the truth of his outcome.  Many make the decisions to give their lives to save others.  In an instant, a man will run into a burning building or a home to save the life of someone trapped in the flames.  They do this even without fully contemplating the loss of their own life.  When an auto accident happens and someone is trapped, we rush to help without thinking that we may risk our own lives in the process.  But who would live their life knowing that they would loose it in the process of helping someone else. 

And this was the life of our Lord Christ Jesus.  He lived.  He loved.  He died knowing that his sacrifice would save the world.  He walked with the disciples and talked with them.  He showed them many miracles where he transformed the lives of many.  Yet he was humble.  He was meek.  He was loving and caring.  He is our example to follow as to how we should live our lives.  He suffered more than we ever will.  He willingly came and lived his life that we would have our life eternally.  And he paid the price for all who would follow that we may not die but be cleansed from sin.

The choice is ours.  The choice is yours.  Find the peace that is within you and seek the knowledge that is yours to have.  You are a child of God.  Your are created in his image and his likeness.  You are not flesh and bone but spirit.  The light of Christ resides in you.  Know the truth of who you are in him and your eyes will be opened, your heart will be filled, and the love of God will guide you on the path that leads to your eternal Father

Read the sign of the times! Read the Highlighted New Testament Bible and lift the scales from your eyes that you may see, that you may know, that you may find the truth of who you are in Christ. Read it as though you would read a good book, from cover to cover, and see for yourself. Do not study it in parts reading one passage and then skipping to another, but read it for understanding. Read it for knowledge. Read it for faith. Read it that your eyes may be opened, that your ears may hear, that your heart may be filled with the light of Christ.   The Holy Spirit awaits you. Christ seeks to know you. Open the door and let him in.