Our paragraph topic is: (Hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees) Part 11.
We end this paragraph topic about the Scribes and the Pharisees but this entire chapter of Matthew revolves around them. They came together at the end of chapter 22 to challenge Christ since they heard that he had silenced the Sadducees. Christ used this opportunity to speak directly to all of them since they had come together to challenge him.
This was his chance to give them instructions while he was with his disciples and the people. Yet even more so, it was an opportunity to open their minds that they might see the truth of who they were and the influence of evil over them. He had told them that he who is the greatest among you shall be your servant which was contrary to their sense of belief that they would be servants to anyone. He further tells them: "And whoever humbles himself shall be exalted."
These statements were spoken to the Scribes and the Pharisees but were also meant to instruct the disciples and anyone who listened. The Scribes and the Pharisees certainly were not humble by any means. They sought recognition. They sought praise. They sought honor and fame because of their positions among the people. They believed that they were above the laws they imposed upon the people. And their beliefs did not encompass humility.
The disciples were being trained by Christ to follow in his footsteps. This statement was an instruction to them also. Do not exalt yourself above the people but follow a humble path. Follow his example of humility and you will be exalted by the Father. He is the son of the most high God, first born above all creation, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Prince of Princes. Yet he humbled himself, discarded his crown of glory and became a servant to the people.
Here is our example today of how to live a humble life. Be of service to one another. Help where help is needed. Show compassion on the lowly and the needy. Give with a loving heart and God will give to you. We are all from one body, created in the same image and likeness, all the same brothers and sisters. Let us not go astray from ourselves. Let us not divide ourselves. Let us not make comparisons that bring jealousy and envy. We are all one in him who created us and gave us life. Christ is our savior. He is our Lord. He is the architect of the life we have today. Be the example. Live the life he has given us in peace and harmony with our brothers and sisters. For we are from one God, one Father, one Lord. Amen.
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 nd 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.
Our paragraph topic is: (Power of faith) Part 3.
So this was their instruction, this was their lesson to master, "Have faith and do not waver." Christ gave them this lesson and he demonstrated the power of faith by commanding the fig tree to wither. They heard his words. They saw the results. And they could not understand how this happened.
Christ told them to believe and to not waver in that belief. He told them to have faith and know that what they say will happen. He told them that there is power in their faith, in their belief, in their trust in something that is much more than the physical understanding. He told them: "But even if you shall say to this mountain, 'Arise, and hurl thyself into the sea,' it shall be done."
We believe in what we see or what we know can happen. And therefore, we understand that something can be done. We find difficult to believe something that we do not see or do not understand, especially if it is beyond our imagination. Christ told his disciples that if they spoke to the mountain and said to it to, hurl itself into the sea, it would be done if they did not waver in that belief.
But how can we not waver in something that is beyond our belief? How can we not waver in something that we do not have an understanding of how that would be possible? How can we not waver if we believe that that something is impossible to our physical knowledge of what can be done in the world? This is the dilemma. In the physical realm and in the realm of the physical thought processes of the mind, what we believe is impossible, cannot be done.
Yet in the spiritual realm of belief and understanding, Christ is telling us and the disciples that faith is the key to opening up the impossible realm of belief and knowledge in the unwavering impossibility and will make it happen. There is another side to who we are. There is another part of what we can do in this realm. There is the power given us through the power of Christ that we can stand upon in our daily lives. His words are truth. His words are everlasting. His words will be fulfilled, in our belief, in our knowledge, in our trust, and our unwavering knowledge of who he is, Christ Jesus, our King and our Savior, the Son of the Living God.
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 nd 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.
Our paragraph topic is: (Cleansing of the Temple) Part 2.
He entered the temple and was inflamed at what he saw, buying and selling, money changers, men practicing deceit and trickery, dishonesty and greed, arrogance and pride. Instead of prayer and worship, they were practicing evil. It was as if evil had taken over the house of the Lord. The people would come to worship their Father were required to purchase gifts for their offerings. And in the purchasing, the men who sold the items to be sacrificed were practicing deceit cheating the worshippers out of their gifts, stealing from God himself.
Christ saw this. He was angry. He was enraged. He knew that evil had taken over those who were doing the selling. He saw them. He cast them out. For evil can only practice it's sins through man. It can only influence man to do evil. And those men had taken over the temple all in the name of making money. And he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold the doves.
The people came to worship. Some had offerings to make. Others did not, so they had to buy what was sold at the temple. It was not that these thing were being sold. It was that they were being sold inside the temple where people came to pray and to worship their father, their creator. They came to give thanks. They came to show gratitude to the lord for what he had given them. They came to receive his blessings.
Just as we do today, when we go to our lord's house to worship, we come to give praise and worship our Lord for that which he has given us. We show gratitude and thanks. For he is the reason that we have the abundance of life today. We are alive. We who believe have the promise of salvation. We who know can see and feel that which is within us. The spirit lives and he comes to be with us. He comes to teach us. He comes to guide us in our daily lives that we do not become evil doers in the world.
Throw off the old self and take up the new self in Christ. He will provided for us. He will delivered us. He will take us home when the transformation comes. For he has given us his words to live by, to breathe by, to know by, to see the miracles by his hand in our daily lives. He is Lord and deliverer. He is the giver of new life, love eternal. Come! Find your peace within and know the truth of who you are in Christ.
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 nd 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.
Our paragraph topic is: (Parable of the laborers in the vineyard)
Part 17.
They grumbled. They complained. They murmured amongst themselves. They were not satisfied. They were not happy that they received the same as the others who had only worked an hour. They thought that they would receive more because they had worked longer than the other laborers. This is the parable that Christ told his disciples. He compared this parable to the kingdom of heaven.
There was a message. There is a lesion to learn. There is information in the parable that will enlighten those who understand. Laborers are needed to bring in the harvest. The harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few. There is a reward for those who work in the vineyard. There is pay for those who work. What will the agreement be for those who do the labor? Christ wants his disciples to understand that the householder is just and fair in his rewards. He wants them to know that as laborers in the vineyard that they will be compensated for their work. But he also wants them to know that just as the laborers in the parable, they should not be like them, they should not compare. For they told the house-holder:
"Thou hast put them on a level with us, who have borne the burden of the day's heat."
And then comes the central point of the parable, on the same level. I am better than they. I worked harder and longer and better than they. I deserve more than they. It is this feeling that comes from within that makes us compare ourselves and determine that we are different, we are better, we are more than they. Where does it come from? Where does it originate? Adam and Eve had everything their hearts desired. They lived in the garden. They did not have to toil. They had all provisions given to them, yet they were tempted. The snake told them that if they ate the forbidden fruit that they would be like God. And with that information came the thought that they were not like God. but wanted to be him. The comparison overwhelmed them so much that they were compelled to transgress.
Are we not the same? Are we not created in the same image and likeness as our Father? Are we not made of the same spirit and life given us by our heavenly Father? Yet we consider ourselves more, we consider ourselves better than, smarter than, prettier than, faster than anyone else. We consider. We allow ourselves to be influenced by the thoughts of the day and the influences of what we perceive from the world. We do not consider that which is within us, that which is our spirit, that which is the light of life restored to us by Christ Jesus.
We walk in the darkness of the physical world not knowing the life that is within us. We see not the beauty of the light of life within each of us. We see only the physical, only the appearance, only the focused view that is given us by the world we live in. What is beauty? What is intelligence? What is wealth? What is life? And what is death?
To see beyond the physical and see within the physical is the opportunity to truly know who we are. To see the light within our own selves opens our eyes to the life that is in others. We are the same. We have the same spirit, if we have life. We all are children of our Father. And it is that one fact that makes us equal, the same, not different. Our Father opens the door to all who would ask of his forgiveness and of his love, whether we do this everyday for the rest of our lives or whether we ask in the last minute of our life here on earth. He is fair. He is merciful. He is loving. He is forgiving. He is our Father and we are his children. Let no evil separate us from his compassion and his love. We are all on the same level.
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.
